26 N. BURGKSS ON THE WOOLS OF COMMERCE. 



the letter-press cannot be reconciled with the engravings. Fig. 16 

 is said to be East Indian wool, but is not correct, the representa- 

 tion being that of " Kemp " hair, which, although taken from the 

 same animal, is not fine wool, but a coarser, longer fibre which often 

 overlies the softer and more valuable wool. 



Mr. Youatt's work on " The 8heep" is that of a man who is evi- 

 dently well posted in his subject ; and I can almost suppose that 

 the article in the " Penny Cyclopaedia," already quoted, was written 

 by the same person. Mr. Youatt considers himself to have been the 

 first to discover the serrations on the edge of the wool fibre, and 

 hence to have been the discoverer of the true secret of the felting 

 property which wool possesses. He tells us that on the 7th of 

 February, 1835, he, in company with five gentlemen, of whom Mr. 

 Powell, the optician, was one, first obtained a view of the hitherto 

 supposed serrations on the edge of the wool fibre, and was the first 

 to make that fact known to the world. He also expresses the 

 opinion that this serrated edge, together with the curly nature of 

 the fibre, produce the " felting property of the wool." He then gives 

 a series of drawings of twenty-four kinds seen as opaque objects, 

 and twenty-seven by transmitted light. 



But I object to the serration theory most emphatically, and I 

 cannot beHeve that in one instance out of the fifty-one figures the 

 object is faithfully drawn. I cannot account for this want of 

 truthfulness in the figures ; but I leave the members to compare 

 nine of Mr. Youatt's figures, copied on a large scale, with the fibre 

 itself as seen under the microscope. Notwithstanding this deficiency 

 in the microscopic i)art of the work, I believe it to be the best on 

 sheep and wool ever pubhshed in any country. 



The result of this examination of the literature of the subject is 

 unsatisfactory, but to the first president of the Quekett Microscopic 

 Club belongs the credit of the best figure of sheep's wool yet pub- 

 lished. 



To the Hon. Mrs. Ward and Mr. P. H. Gosse I must award the 

 second place. Mrs. Ward's figure is too regular and cylindrical 

 in appearance ; but the scales are most correct. Mr. Gosse gives 

 the irregular outline of the edge much better, but fails in accuracy 

 in the imbricate form of the scales. 



r propose to deal with the fibres of wool under three different 

 heads— first, its ordinary form of growth; secondly, its external 

 form and structure ; thirdly, its internal structure. 



