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FIBRE.
CHAP. I.
be earthy, by combustion, or long continued putrefaction. ¬
Iv. These earthy particles derive connection and
the power of cohesion, not from themselves, but
from interposed gluten. We know this from the
preceding observations, (1II.) and the easy experiment, ¬
in which a burnt hair, whoſe parts hang still
together, recovers a certain degree of firmness by
being dipped in water or oil. Ivory and bones also
become friable, by the extraction of their gelly.
Long exposure to weather effects a similar change,
rendering bones a true earth, absorbent and bibulous. ¬
But even bone, become friable from having
its gelly extracted, reacquires its osseous hardness,
when that gelly is restored. The more simple animals ¬
consist entirely of this gluten.
v. Lastly, the chemical analysis of bone, and hair,
the gelly of bone, ivory, and horn, the nature of
our aliments, &c. prove, that this gluten is composed ¬
of water, incorporated with oil by animal life.
Nor does any other kind of gluten unite the parts
of animals more strongly, as we see in size and
common glue.
vI. The primary simple fibre, such as we rather
comprehend from reason than sense, is composed of
(earthy particles, adhering longitudinally, and connected ¬
by intervening and cohesive gluten.
VII. But the fibres which appear primary to the
fight, are of two kinds. The firſt is linear, whoſe
length is considerable in proportion to its breadth,
and whoſe elementary particles lie in a straight line,
and thus generally parallel to those contiguous.
We see examples of this kind of fibre in bone,
moſt easily in those of the foetus, and also in tendons, ¬
ligaments and muscles, always recollecting
that the eye sees not the most minute fibres, but
only the larger ones composed of these, and similar ¬
to them in straightnefs and flenderness. That
the
