30 N. BURGESS ON THE WOOLS OF COMMERCE. 



Hence hair, wool, the nails of the fingers, the claws of birds, and 

 the horns and hoofs of animals are identical in substance. A friend 

 of mine, while exploring the Zulu country, in Africa, found a 

 weathered specimen of the horn of rhinocei'os, which curiously il- 

 lustrates this point. It was thirty inches long, and six inches in 

 diameter at the base. The tip was so disintegrated as to resemble 

 a tuft of bristles mixed with hairs. 



I am of opinion, with respect to the growth of avooI, that as soon 

 as the point of the fibre has protruded through the skin of the ani- 

 mal, a series of growths takes place, a small part of the epidermis 

 is converted into wool, and then a rest ensues. One side grows 

 faster than another, whence probably the curly form of the fibre. 

 When another growth takes place, another ring is added, the new 

 growth pushing up the hair from below, and so adding to its 

 length; this process is relocated, varying as to the length, 

 straightness, and girth of the joints, and possibly with a variation in 

 the thickness of the cylindrical portion of the fibre. The differ- 

 ence would, of course, depend on the physical condition of the 

 animal, and the character of the food, which sometimes so acts on 

 the fibre that a staple will break in two at a certain part, just as 

 though it were scorched, probably through the epidermal wall being 

 thinner at that part 



These alternations of growth and rest produce that form on the 

 external coat of the fibre, which has been so unscientifically called 

 "serrated." These points, it must be observed, are not at right 

 angles with the edge of the fibre, but oblique, some at one angle 

 some at another, some confluent, others divergent, some raised 

 above the surface, while others show scarcely any elevation at all. 



Next, as to the size of fibres. 



The size of the fibre is very irregular, scarcely any two from 

 the staple being found alike, and each varying in its own length. 

 In a fibre of Southdown wool, a comparatively miiform species, I 

 have found the size to vary in ^\^ of an inch as much as one fifth 

 of the whole diameter. 



I may here explain that the term staple refers to the small tufts, 

 somewhat like a wheatsheaf in form, in which the wool grows on 

 the animal. 



The finest Saxon wool I have ever seen, gave a remarkable re- 

 sult on being measured. Five hairs in one staple were selected ; the 

 finest gave the extremely small diameter of ^ ^c ^g of an inch, or y|^ 

 of a millimetre, while another fibre lying by its side measured the 



