ne. He simply places the thing to be
tested under the microscope, and--as he is acquainted with every
description of hair, cotton, wool, silk and other fibre--he can tell at
a glance what it is.

Hair is more like wool than anything else, but wool is irregular and
hair is pretty regular in breadth. The hair of an adult, also, has a
streak in the middle.

[Illustration: AN IMPORTANT CLUE--MEASURING FOOTSTEPS.]

We append accurate illustrations, from microscopic photographs, of the
hairs of many animals. Obviously, there is no difficulty to the
practised eye in distinguishing them. In fact, most animals' hairs can
be known by the naked eye, or with a small magnifying glass; but that of
skye terriers and spaniels is wonderfully like human hair.

On all these little things hinges, very often, the terrible issue of
"guilty" or "not guilty"!

Some years ago, a woman was found dead with a knife lying loosely in her
hand. This fact might mislead people into thinking it was a case of
suicide; but the fact that the knife was not held tight made the doctor
suspicious. He examined the blood on the knife, and found woollen fibres
which resembled those of the husband's clothes. This discovery so acted
on the husband that he confessed his guilt.

On another occasion a Taunton man was seen last in company with a man
subsequently found dead. In the Taunton man's possession was a knife
with a slight film of blood on the blade. He said he had been cutting
raw beef. The analyst easily showed, however, that the blood on the
knife came from a living animal; and, further, he found on it some
little scales from the lining of the human gullet. The Taunton man was
convicted.

A remarkable instance of the analyst's power was given in a Cornwall
murder case. A man was found with his head broken. On a hammer belonging
to a suspect were a couple of grey hairs. This hammer, however, had been
used for beating goat-skins, and, in fact, it was found in a hedge on
which a goat-skin was spread out to dry.

But the medical witness swore that the two hairs came from somebody's
eyebrow, and, on comparing them with the dead man's eyebrow, they
corresponded!

In one case a man was very near being hanged--and in the old days,
doubtless, he would have been hanged--mainly because a knife with red
stains was found in his possession. The medical witness found that they
were rust caused by an acid fruit; and then it was found that the
prisoner had actual