THE JOIJENAL 



OF THE 



^itchett piaostopttal ChtL 



The Wools of Commerce Commercially and Microscopically 

 Considered. By N. Burgess. 



{Read November 22?ic?, and December 27th, 1867.) 

 [Abstract.] 



Part I. 



The first part of the paper was limited to the commercial aspect of wool. True 

 wool was stated to be confined to the several varieties of sheep ; and the sub- 

 ject was divided as follows:— Geographical Distributionof Sheep;— Varieties of 

 Breed;— Eise and Progress of Australia the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and 

 the Eiver Plate,as wool producing colonies;— an analysis of the varieties of fleece 

 produced in Great Britain, and an account of the method of converting wool 

 into cloth. It was illustrated by seventy-nine specimens of special character, 

 together uith samples in various stages of manufacture. 



Part II. 



In the first part of tliis paper attention was called to many facts 

 relating to wools from various breeds of the animal which produces 

 that material. It was stated that all the non-divergent forms of 

 sheep might have had one common origin, and therefore that all 

 the wools would have essentially the same primary structure, which 

 would be more or less modified where climate or soil have produced 

 alterations in the fibre. The microscope shews us that an ap- 

 parently solid hair is not really so. In a transverse section of that 

 of the elephant, for instance, it is apparent at once that the hair, like 

 a section of a tree, has internal perforations, in which probably 

 similar functions in life are carried on. In a section of the human 

 hair we have a form which some have described as a hollow tube, 

 resembling a quill or straw, the interior being altogether hollow ; 



D 



