XIII.—The Appearance in Cross-section of the Hairs of some Carnivores and Rodents

Abstract

Examination of mammalian pelts reveals the presence of two types of hair—long, glossy fibres known as “guard”- or “top-hair,” and shorter, softer, more curly fibres termed ”ground”- or “under-wool.” Guard-hairs are of two kinds: primary fibres classified by Toldt (1910) as “Leithaare,” and shorter, less robust secondary fibres which Toldt described as “Grannenhaare.” The under-wool is analogous to Toldt's “Wohlhaare.” More recently Toldt (1935) has described the appearance of the various fibre types occurring in hair from a wide range of mammals, and gives an extensive bibliography on hair from many orders of mammalia, including the two at present under consideration. Glaister (1931) made a photomicrographic survey of whole mounts and transverse sections of fibres from a large number of mammals. This work, however, suffers from the disadvantage that the photomicrographs were taken at low magnifications. When photographed at magnifications of the order × 500, transverse sections of fibres readily demonstrate the distribution and structure of cuticle, cortex and medulla. Such information is valuable as a means of studying structural variations in hair from different types of mammals, and often possesses considerable taxonomic significance and practical value—Dearborn (1939) reports the use of cross-sections of mammalian guard-hairs as a help to identifying small hairs found in the stomachs and excreta of predators, while the importance of fibre histology in forensic science has been reviewed by Smith and Glaister (1939). Furthermore, microchemical tests carried out on wool fibres (Bekker and King, 1931) and on transverse sections of kolinsky and hare fibres (Stoves, 1943a) have shown that cuticle, cortex, and medulla exhibit different chemical properties, so that morphological differentiation is accompanied by variation in chemical reactivity.