24 N. BURGESR ON THE WOOLS OF COMMERCE. 



but if put under polarized light it will be seen that the internal part 

 is filled with a granular material, which occupies the whole of the 

 inside, with the exception of the extreme centre, where a sort of 

 central pith is just observable, probably intended to be a channel 

 to admit supplies of nourishment, or coloring matter to sustain it 

 in a state of health. I am of opinion that this will be the rule in 

 all kinds of hair, and that each genera of animals will have its own 

 peculiar form, both internally and externally. 



In the year 1664, the learned Dr. Hooke brought before the Royal 

 Society a paper upon hairs, and in the " Micrographia," pub- 

 lished two years afterwards, are several figures of hairs in 

 section. He combats the idea that hairs were hollow, but seems 

 to fall into as great an error on the other side by concluding that 

 hairs were mostly solid. Hooke' s figures are good on the whole, 

 and have been often copied in this country, and on the continent. 

 About thirty years after this, Leeuwenhoek took up the subject of 

 hair and wool, and in his select works are to be found figures of 

 human hair and of wool ; but his figures of wool are very bad, 

 and prove that he had no knowledge of its microscopic form. 



Henry Baker, F.R.S., in the year 1742, read a short paper on 

 hairs before the Royal Society. In his books, published in 1744, 

 he devotes two pages to the subject ; but he classes human hair 

 ■with that of horses, sheep, and hogs, and describes it as composed 

 of long tubular fibres, or smaller hairs, encompassed with a rind, or 

 bark ; but separates the quills of the porcupine or hedgehog from 

 this class, as containing a whitish pith, in a star-like form. 



We may conclude that a microscopic investigation of wool belongs 

 to the present century, and the results which have been published 

 are not accurate; neither Dr. Quekett, Dr. Beale, Dr. Carpenter, 

 or Dr. Jabez Hogg allude to the subject. 



Dr. Wythes, in a work called " The Microscopist," published in 

 Philadelj^hia, takes up the prevailing notion that the imbricated 

 scales on the external surface of each fibre are the cause of wool 

 possessing its well-known felting property. In the " Penny Cyclo- 

 paedia," under "Sheep," Vol. XXI., p. 356, is a very good article on 

 wool and sheep ; but the writer has fallen into the same mistake as 

 to the " felting process." 



After speaking of the "elasticity," or yielding character of the 

 wool, and of its " pliability " and " softness," " without which no 

 manufacture of it can be carried to any degree of perfection," he 



