OR, A TREATISE ON PILE. 9 
5th. In inclination,—hair issuing out of the epidermis, at an acute angle thereto,—while 
wool issues out of the epidermis at a right angle thereto. 
6th. In color,—hair often assuming a variety of colors,—while wool is generally white, 
brown, or black. 
7th. In uniformity of color ina single filament; each separate filament of wool being 
mono-chromatic; while that of the hair of some of the lower animals is often poly-chro- 
matic. 
8th. In dimensions,—hair being, generally, longer, and of a greater diameter than wool. 
9th. In exuberance,—wool being produced, generally, in 
given area of skin, than hair. 
10th. In the apex,—that of hair being less pointed, in proportion to the diameter. 
11th. In the disposition of the coloring matter of a perfect hair, being in a ceutral canal, 
which is not found in wool. (See fig. 2, a hair and } wool, contrasted.) 
ereater profusion, upon a 
Or Firrece.—The covering of sheep is called “fleece,” from the Saxon “flys.” Itis 
either hair, or wool, or a mixture of both.* 
PILE AND FEATHERS HAVE BEEN ConFrouNDED.—Dr. Ure (in his Philos. of Manufac. ) 
says, “wool is a filamentous substance, which covers the skin of sheep and some other 
animals, as the beaver, the ostrich, the lama, the goat of Thibet and Cashmere,” &c., &c. 
Eble (in Die Lehre von der Haaren,) writes of the hair of birds. He says, “only few 
birds possess stiff bristles and corneous hazr, which we find more frequently with the 
mammalia; and it seems undetermined whether we are to count the fine down, which 
covers the body of a young bird before the formation of the real feathers, as hair or 
Seathers.” 
In Goodrich’s Geography, p. 444, it is said that “the Rhea, or American Ostrich, has 
black eye-lashes.” 
And in Agasie’s and Gould’s Principles of Zoology, p. 151, it is asserted, that the 
“chicken completely changes its covering from down to feathers.” 
Eble also states, that “the male turkey has a tuft of stiff haz on his neck.” 
To judge of the value of the above assertions, we must understand what is a feather. 
Description or A FEaTHER.—(See fig. 3.)—A feather consists of, 1st, a cylinder, at the 
inferior extremity of which is a sheath, which connects it with the skin, but it has no 
follicle. 'The cylinder is horny, is always of a circumference greater than that of its stalk ; 
is transparent, or translucent, and terminates in a point more or less abrupt, which is 
pierced at the posterior extremity. ‘This orifice is called the “znferior navel,” to dis- 
tinguish it from another situated on the internal face, at the poit where the cylinder 
unites with the stalk, which latter is called the ‘‘swpertor navel.” Inside of the cylinder 
is a series of capsules, fitting one in another,—and sometimes united by a central stalk,— 
forming a spire or chain. ‘This series is called the “heart” of the feather. 
* There is no good reason for not extending it to that of the goat. 
