HISTORY OF WOOL. 227 



immaterial circumstances. Indeed, its sympathetic action 

 is so closely concerned with the condition of the skin, that it 

 might be said truthfully that it keeps a constant periodical 

 record of the daily changes in the health or welfare of the 

 sheep. Every failure in the sheep's condition is marked by 

 a weak spot in the fiber of the fleece, and when this is at 

 all serious, these weak spots are so considerably developed 

 as to weaken the fibers and cause them to break easily, 

 and thus greatly lessen the value of the wool for manu- 

 factures. 



As with many other things, modern science disproves the 

 old belief that wool, as well as hair, has the form of a tube. 

 This was always stated in the old works on the sheep, and 

 its care and management; but now relegated, by more exact 

 knowledge, to that heap, or waste pile of errors, which grad- 

 ually accumulates as we learn more of 'the nature of things 

 through our more exact scientific instruments. The modern 

 process of dividing objects for examination by improved 

 microscopes, and by which we can cut sections or objects to 

 a thinness of the thousandth part of an inch or less, and 

 magnify them a million times with our better knowledge of 

 the effects of light, has proved to us that hair and wool are 

 solid and not tubular, but that they have a central core, as it 

 were, which is covered by a distinct epidermis or outer cov- 

 ering, smooth and brilliant in hair, but in wool serrated and 

 covered with scales having sharp entangling points or 

 hooks, by which the fibers, under certain conditions, become 

 closely intertwined and entangled, forming a tough, elastic 

 fabric which we know as felt; the common material for 

 making hats. This fact is not only interesting to the shep- 

 herd to know, but useful, as furnishing admonition to him 

 to avoid these conditions which are very easy to occur in 

 the care of a flock, by which the wool undergoes this very 

 injurious process and is thus seriously reduced in value 

 to the manufacturer. 



But wool, while it retains these normal relations, and 

 peculiarities, of form, yet varies very much in the different 

 breeds of wool bearers. Indeed, this variation is so con- 

 siderable, that it is an indispensable necessity for the sur- 

 vival of an enormous industry in manufacturing wool frr 

 various kinds of clothing, that the culture of it, as a special 



