Wool

WOOL. Animal fibres are usually spoken of as hair, with the exception of the coat of the sheep which is usually termed wool. Before the researches of Professor Cossar Ewart (Edinburgh) wool was looked upon as a modified form of hair. Now it is usual to look upon wool as the simpler structure and hair as a develop ment from this structure. The difference between wool and hair is best realized by a study of the double coat of the primitive wild sheep. The under coat is fine wool—the fibre showing a twofold structure, inner or cortex and outer or cuticle. Microscopic ex amination of this fibre shows a highly imbricated or serrated sur face. The outer coat is coarse hair—the fibre showing a threefold structure, medulla along with cortex and cuticle. The medulla is probably an air or gas-filled core of the fibre which markedly changes both the appearance and physical properties of the fibre. Certain animals are covered with wool only, others with hair only and others with both hair and wool. The sheep is possibly the only animal carrying a fleece of wool only and not every variety of sheep does this. Certain varieties of sheep are stated to carry hair only, but such animals as goats. cattle, horses. etc.. are the chief hair-bearing animals. A few years ago the hair of the Angora goat (termed mohair) would have been classed as a hair but Duerdon (Grahamstown) has shown that it is the under-coat and therefore ought to be ranked as wool. That there may be grada tions from wool to hair was shown by an analysis of the coat of the blackface sheep by Barker (Leeds) but further researches on this coat by Janet Blyth (Edinburgh) suggest rather modifications of the two extreme types of fibres towards a common type. The differentiation between the two types, however, is very difficult for both probably arise from the inturned epidermis; but as the sheep has two skins separated by a layer of fat it is suggested that the physiological process of bringing a fibre up from the lower skin produces hair and the process of bringing a fibre from the upper skin produces wool. This is borne out by the fact that if a small

lock of wool is jerked from a fine merino sheep it brings the upper skin away with it. The camel produces two distinctive coats but perhaps the most interesting animal of this class is the "musk ox" or ovibos of the Arctic regions. This creature grows an under-coat of beautifully soft fibre, which perhaps should be regarded as wool, which it casts once a year; and an outer coat of strong hair of which presumably it distributes the casting throughout the entire year.

Wool in Britain.

Wool is one of the most important of the textile fibres. Owing to the ease with which it may be spun into thread, and the comfort derived from clothing made of wool, it would naturally be one of the first textiles used by mankind for clothing. Ancient records prove the high antiquity of wool tex tiles and the early importance of the sheep. The different kinds of wool and the cloth made from them in antiquity are described by Pliny and referred to by other writers. The sheep certainly was a domestic animal in Britain long before the period of the Roman occupation ; and it is probable that some use was made of sheep skins and of wool. But the Romans established a wool fac tory whence the occupying army was supplied with clothing, and the value of the manufacture was soon recognized by the Britons, of whom Tacitus remarks, "Inde etiam habitus nostri honor et fre quens toga" (Agric. c. 20. The product of the Winchester looms soon established a reputation abroad, it being remarked that "the wool of Britain is often spun so fine that it is in a manner com parable to the spider's thread." This reputation was maintained throughout the middle ages, and the fibre was in great demand in the Low Countries and other continental centres. There are many allusions to woollen manufactures in England in early times; but the native industry of the island could not rival the products of the continent.