FELTING. 47 



and the number of the serrations. The Saxon wool is re- 

 markable for the close packing of its little curves ; the num- 

 ber of serrations are 2720 in an inch. The South Down 

 wool has numerous curves, but evidently more distant than 

 in the former sample ; the serrations are 2080. In the Lei- 

 cester the wavy curls are so far removed from each other, 

 that a great part of the fibre would be dissipated under the 

 operation of the card, and the serrations are 1860; and in 

 some of the wools which warm the animal, but were not in- 

 tended to clothe the human body, the curves are more dis- 

 tant, and the serrations are not more than 480. The wool- 

 grower, the stapler, and the manufacturer, can scarcely wish 

 for better guides. 



" Yet there is no organic connexion between the curve and 

 the serration ; the serrations are not the cause of the curve, 

 nor do the curves produce the serrations ; the connexion is 

 founded on the grand principle that the works of nature are 

 perfect, that no beneficial power is bestowed without full 

 scope for its exercise. The curves of the smooth fibre 

 might entangle to a considerable degree, but some of the 

 points would be continually unravelling and threatening the 

 dissolution of the whole felt. The straight fibre, however 

 deeply serrated, its root being introduced into the mass, 

 would often pass on, and pass through the felt and be lost. 

 It is by the curved form of the jagged fibre that the object 

 can be accomplished certainly and perfectly. 



" Future observers may possibly detect in wool the apparent 

 coned and jointed structure of the hair of the bat, and then a 

 third and powerful principle would be called into action, the 

 pliability of the fibre, the ease with which it is bent in every 

 different direction, and in each becomes more inexplicably 

 entangled. A great point, however, is gained by the knowl- 

 edge that in proportion as the auxiliaries in the felting pro- 

 cess are multiplied, the direct agents are also increased." 



