REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 351 



A celebrated French chemist, M. VAUQUELIN, from a vast variety of experi- 

 ments on the composition of the yolk of wool, arrived at the following results. 

 It is composed 1. Of a soapy matter with a basis of potash, which formed the 

 greater part of it. 2. A small quantity of the carbonate of potash. 3. A per- 

 ceptible quantity of the acetate of potash. 4. Lime, whose state of combina- 

 tion he was unacquainted with. 5. An atom of the muriate of potash. 6. An 

 animal oil, to which he attributed the peculiar odour of the yolk and, in con- 

 clusion, he was of opinion, that all these materials (in their several propor- 

 tions) were essential to the yolk, and not found in it by accident, for he analysed 

 the yolk in a great number of samples, as well Spanish as French, and 

 found them in all. Annales de Chimie, An. xi. No. 141. The yolk being a true 

 soap, soluble in water, it is easy to account for the comparative facility with 

 which sheep that have the natural proportion of it are washed in a running 

 stream. But there is, however, a small quantity of fatty matter in the fleece, 

 which is not in combination with the alkali, and which", remaining attached 

 to the wool, keeps it a little glutinous notwithstanding the most careful wash- 

 ings. buccockon Wool. 



The fibre of wool is of a circular form, varying in diameter 

 in different breeds and in different parts of the fleece of the 

 same animal. It is generally larger towards the extremities. It 

 presents this appearance after having penetrated the skin and 

 yolk. BAKEWELL says that the filaments of white wool, when, 

 cleansed from grease, are semi-transparent, their surface in 

 some places being beautifully polished, in others beautifully 

 encrusted, and they reflect the rays of light in a very pleasing 

 manner. When the animal is in good condition, and of course 

 yielding a healthy fleece, the appearance of the fibre, when 

 viewed by the aid of a powerful microscope, is really brilliant; 

 while from the wool from sheep of ill condition, or half fed, a 

 wan, pale, sickly light is reflected. Mr. LIVINGSTON, of New 

 York, has made the same or similar observations in regard to 

 wool. Mr. YOUATT, in his History of Sheep, says that Mr. 

 LUCCOCK speaks of some breeds in which the pile is flat and 

 smooth, like a small bar of finely polished steel. 



The properties of wool are various the most important are 

 fineness of pile purity proper length of staple elasticity 

 colour. "The property which first attracts attention, and 

 which is of greater importance than any other, is the fineness 

 of the pile, the quantity of fine wool which a fleece yields, 

 and the degree of that fineness. Absolute fineness varies to 



sheep; the weather immediately following was wet; and out of the thousand 

 so treated, he lost more than seven hundred, with what he termed the skin-rot. 

 He said the application, so far as he was capable of forming a judgment, ar- 

 rested the natural perspiration of the animal, which being once checked could 

 not be restored, and the poor sheep died in the greatest agony. The remain- 

 der of his flock continued in good health the disease, if such it can be called, 

 was not contagious. We should suppose that the free application of this mix- 

 ture would have a tendency to impair the quality of the wool, and consequent- 

 ly to reduce its value in the market. Professor Low, however, recommends 

 this smearing of sheep before winter in very elevated or cold countries. He 

 advises the butter to be boiled, and a little milk mixed with it; six pounds of 

 butter to one of tar, thus prepared, will be sufficient for twenty sheep. 

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