46 PROPERTIES OF WOOL. 



tions. In the finer species of wool these circles seemed at 

 first to be composed of one indented, or serrated ring ; but 

 when the eye was accustomed to them, this ring was resolv- 

 able into leaves, or scales. In the larger kinds the ring was 

 at once resolvable into these scales, or leaves, varying in 

 number, shape, and size, and projecting at different angles 

 from the stalk, in the direction of the leaves of vegetables, 

 from the root to the point, or farther extremity. In the bat 

 there seemed to be a diminution in the bulk of the stalk, 

 immediately above the commencement of the sprouting of 

 the leaves, and presenting the appearance of the apex of an 

 inverted cone received in the hollowed cup-like base of an- 

 other immediately beneath. The diminution in the fibre of 

 the wool at these points could be only indistinctly perceived ; 

 but the projection of the leaves gave a somewhat similar 

 cone-like appearance. The extremities of the leaves in the 

 long Merino and the Saxon wool were evidently pointed, 

 with acute indentations or angles between them. They 

 were pointed likewise in the South Down, but not so much, 

 and the interposed vacuities were less deep and angular. 

 In the Leicester the leaves are round, with a diminutive 

 point or space. Of the actual substance and strength of 

 these leafy or scaly circles nothing can yet be affirmed ; but 

 they appear to be capable of different degrees of resistance, 

 or of entanglement with other fibres, in proportion as their 

 form is sharpened, and they project from the stalk, and in 

 proportion likewise as these circlets are multiplied. So far 

 as the examination has hitherto proceeded, they are sharper 

 and more numerous in the felting wools than in others, and 

 in proportion as the felting property exists. The conclusion 

 seems to be legitimate, and indeed inevitable, that they are 

 connected with, or, in fact, that they give to the wool the 

 power of felting, and regulate the degree in which that power 

 is possessed. 



" If to this is added the curved form which the fibre of the 

 wool naturally assumes, and the well-known fact, that these 

 curves differ in the most striking degree in different breeds, 

 according to the fineness of the fibre, and, when multiplying 

 in a given space, increase both the means of entanglement 

 and the difficulty of disengagement, the whole mystery of 

 felting is unravelled. A cursory glance will discover the 

 proportionate number of curves, and the microscope has now 

 established a connexion between the closeness of the curves 



