32 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



therefore, to furnish one or two passages from his work in the present 

 connection. 



1 So great is the diversity in nature that we may say with truth 

 that each fibre has a structure of its own, and differs in many 

 particulars from all its fellows. Generally speaking, however, I have 

 found that they may be divided into three classes : 



' 1. Those where no internal structure is apparent. 



' 2. Where the structure seems to be simply tubular, with a well- 

 defined transparent cell-wall. 



' 3. Where the structure is tubular, and the interior of the cell 

 filled with secondary deposits which almost entirely occupy the 

 internal cavity, giving the fibre a dense, almost opaque appearance.' 

 Dead Dead or Kempy Cotton. ' Of course there are various degrees in 



the distinctness with which these characteristics are manifested in 

 different filaments, and some observers have made many more 

 divisions, dependent upon the length, thickness, and number of 

 convolutions or twistings present in the various fibres in a given 

 length ; but it seems to me that for practical purposes these divisions 

 are sufficient to cover all the various appearances presented, at any 

 rate in the cultivated cotton.' 



Dr. Bowman goes on to explain that the first of these classes 

 occurs most frequently in early and unripe cotton, and he adds, 

 singular to say, also in cotton that is over-ripe. The presence of 

 ' solid structures, homogeneous and transparent,' is objectionable, 

 since they are quite incapable of being permeated by the ordinary 

 tinctorial methods, and give in consequence an unfinished appear- 

 Kempy ance to goods made from yarn in which they are at all abundant- 

 The dye-resisting poiiions are, he explains, analogous to the 

 ' kemps ' in wool fabrics. Further on he observes these kempy 

 portions of the cotton staple often become continuous throughout 

 the length of the cell, and, as might have been expected from the 

 greater hardness and density of the hair, such cells appear more 

 like transparent glass rods than examples of cotton. Apparently 

 Bowman did not observe that protracted deposition, in obliterating. 

 or closing up the intermittent thinner parts, would of necessity 

 result in straight, rigid, rod-like untwisted cotton, so that the same 

 condition of kempy floss would result from both under and over- 

 growth, the difference being chiefly in rigidity. Many subsequent 

 writers have dealt with this subject and the so-called kempy con- 

 dition has in trade come to bear the name of ' dead cotton.' 



