: Ocr, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 359 
“ombination with the sweat or fluid perspiration, forms a kind of soap, the yolk 
Properly speaking, a subject about which more will be said later on. shall now 
‘Peak about hair and wool in their natural condition as the products of the skin, 
g We have seen that all kinds of hairs grow from the hair bulb or papilla. 
Ae kinds of hair live for a short period only, and then drop off. After this 
Ae hair-bulb produces a new hair. ‘This is a phenomenon similar to moulting, 
With that difference that, whilst the latter takes: place periodically, according to 
© Seasons, the falling off of matured hairs and the growth of young ones, does 
ot always depend upon the season, but uponapeculiar constitution of the different 
Ids of hair in question. Horses, for instance, shed their summer and their 
Minter coats periodically; but their eyelashes, the hairs of their manes undergo 
More gradual process all the year round. The hair of the tail of horses, how- 
Yer, does not moult in the sense of a periodical change, but grows on without 
Mterruption so long as the animal is in good health and condition. An experi- 
hent consisting in combing and otherwise carefully preserving the tail of a 
*r'se, resulted in a growth of several yards in length. Merino wool, if allowed 
fi Stow, will also attain a very considerable length. I have seen samples of 
aa Merino wool of several feet in length. Bohm mentions the wool sample of 
Wate-woolled Electoral sheep that had not been shorn for 10 years, and the 
Aple of which was 25 centimetres long. 
_ All animal hairs —bristles, &c., included—originate and develop alike. The 
die” including the wool of our domestic sheep, are composed of two or three 
F ferent parts—1. The outer coating or the cuticle of the hair. 2. The cortical 
Ubstance, 3. The marrow or medulla. oe 
- The cuticle consists of a layer of scales, which are nothing but epidermal 
ells turned into horn. ‘They cover the hair closely, surrounding it like more 
1" less perfect rings, and overlapping each other, so that the surface of the hair 
*s the appearance of a shingled or tile-covered roof. It is important to notice 
h aU these epidermal scales merely form a thin. coating round the shaft of the 
“Wr, and that they are not protrusions of the hair substance itself. 
The first description of the external structure of the wool fibre which we 
Possens eame from the father of microscopic inquiries, the Dutchman 
, °ewenhick. The microscope not being known to him at first, he was obliged 
he Make uge in his inquiries of a number of small globes: manufactured by 
freselt out of glass, and it is not to be wondered at that he described the wool 
‘ Te ag a vegetable product of the skin, with hooks and branches. The optical 
clusions throuch which DLoewenhdck was deceived caused also the great 
*terinary Youatt to fall into the same error, and I must quote Youatt’s own 
Yords in ‘order to refute a statement which, if adopted as being correct, must 
Prevent us from recognising in its fullest importance one of the most valued 
{ialities of the wool—namely, the felting property; a peculiarity to which I 
ft ‘ll have to refer more fully on a later occasion. Youatt describes the wool 
Te in these words: “The edges were evidently hooked, or, more properly, 
trated ; thev resembled the teeth of a fine saw.” And in another place, 
These serrations were not so marked as the inverted cones which the bat s wool 
Sented, but they were distinct enough, and the apex of the superior one, yet 
) paratively little diminished in bulk, was received into the excavated base of 
© one immediately beneath, while the edge of this base, formed into a cup-like 
re P& projected, and had a serrated or indented edge bearing no indistinct 
€mblance to the ancient crown.” 
Anybody that will take the trouble to examine under the microscope a 
nun er of Saal fibres will find, provided that perfectly well-washed specimens 
"€ selected so as to avoid the adherence of yolk, or dust, &c., that Youatt’s 
‘a ‘cription is very much exaggerated, and that he has been led away by the 
“A that “hiy sérrated edge” is “‘the only mode by which those properties of 
ol on which some of its value chiefly depends—the felting property—can be 
