DR. MARTIN BARRY ON FIBRE. 
105 
organic matter, to early stages in the formation of the most elaborate animal tissues, 
more particularly nerve and muscle. Of such mould, figs. 25, 26,34, 78, 97, and 104 
may serve as examples. They present, it will be seen, mould from a ripe berry, and 
from decomposing animal substances, including cheese. Some of these figures (figs. 25, 
26 (3 /3) represent cells, which have applied themselves to one another, and elongated; 
in one (fig. 26 y), discs have arranged themselves in rows ; in another (fig. 25), in- 
terlacing spirals have formed (out of discs) ; in a third (fig. 26 S, s), there are seen 
rings; in a fourth (fig. 26 £), spiral filaments have been produced, and become elon- 
gated ; and in a fifth (fig. 78), a bundle of longitudinal filaments is surrounded by 
one having a spiral form. The plates present very similar appearances, observed in 
the most important structures of the animal economy. 
68. Flax has afforded most satisfactory evidence of identity, not only in structure, 
but in the mode of reproduction, between animal and vegetable “fibre.” We here 
find the same division of filaments into minuter filaments, and these again into fila- 
ments still more minute; as in fig. 76 a, (3, y, & — states which were noticed in the 
same fasciculus of flax. There is also seen the same coalescence of some spirals, to 
form an investing membrane (figs. 109, 110) as is observable in muscle, while others 
retain the spiral form, and undergo the same division (fig. 113 a) and subdivision 
(a a). In flax, filaments are frequently met with running in opposite directions 
around the fasciculus, and forming knots (fig. 101). Some of the flax-fasciculi afford 
evidence of a continued origin of new spirals in the same centre, after a considerable 
size has been attained (figs. 109, 110) ; these spirals being curiously interlaced. — See 
the description of figs. 109, 110. Very similar appearances, we have seen in nerve 
(par. 28). All the filaments in flax now mentioned consist of spirals, connected in the 
manner above described (par. 14), as their mode of combination in animal tissues. 
69. The difference in the degree of developement exhibited by a flax-fasciculus in 
different parts, is sometimes very great. Thus the three conditions a, /3, y, repre- 
sented in fig. 75, were noticed in the same fasciculus of flax. 
70. In cotton, I found appearances of the same kind as those observed in flax-f. 
71. Hair (fig. 139) presents the same kind of longitudinal filaments, as well as 
spiral filaments ; some of the latter appearing to be curiously interlaced, and others 
coalescing to enter into the formation of the investing membrane. Besides the hair, 
of which a sketch is given in the figure, I have examined that of the Bat, Mouse, 
Mole, Rabbit, Sheep, Hog, Horse, Polar Bear, and Elephant, as well as the hair of 
Man ; finding in all instances the filaments in question. 
t It is a little singular, that the flax above mentioned had been spun and woven into the linen cloth used for 
drying the strip of glass on which the objects lay when examined : portions of these flax-fasciculi detached from 
the cloth remaining adherent to the glass. I found compound filaments, such as those above described, even in 
paper, and in dry cork ; in Leghorn grass, taken from a hat ; in the cedar-wood of a pencil ; and in hemp that 
had been twisted into twine. 
MDCCCXLII. 
P 
