OBSERVATIONS UPON COTTON. 395 



individual fibres, might lead to want of clearness ; I propose 

 therefore to employ the word hairy or the term cotton hairs, 

 when referring to the fibres singly. 



Experimenters appear to have been deterred from mani- 

 pulating with the individual hairs, on account of their 

 smallness and lightness ; and when we consider that there 

 are from fourteen to twenty thousand hairs in a single grain- 

 weight of cotton, and that they are so small as 20'ooth of an 

 inch in diameter, we might consider them exclusively within 

 the domain of the microscopist ; and not a Httle of the 

 interest I have felt in these experiments has been derived 

 from the refiection that I was. ascertaining the properties 

 of perhaps the smallest particles of matter which had been 

 subjected to similar experimental research. 



I propose in this paper to confine myself to some of the 

 physical properties of the hairs of several varieties of cot- 

 ton as found in commerce, and hope in future communica- 

 tions to arrange some more miscellaneous matter. 



The Samples of Cotton experimented upon. — The expe- 

 riments have been made upon seventeen difi*erent samples 

 of cotton. Eight of these samples I obtained through the 

 Cotton Supply Association about three years ago, in answer 

 to my request ; and I am indebted to Mr. G. R. Haywood, 

 then acting as secretary to the Association, for his readi- 

 ness in forwarding them to me. There can be no doubt 

 that these samples properly represent their various deno- 

 minations : their names and prices in Liverpool, on De- 

 cember 13, i860, are given below : — 



d. 

 Surat (Dhallerah) 5^ per lb. 



Mobile 6| 



Upland 6| 



Orleans 7^ 



Maranham 8^ 



Egyptian ^^d. to 9^ 



Sea Island i6 



Sea Island, grown at Edisto Island ... a6 



