Experiments on Wool from Copper-Deficient Sheep

Abstract

It has been confirmed that wool from copper-deficient sheep has a faster rate of extension in water under constant load than normal; it has been found that this wool has a greater diameter swelling in formic acid and is more easily penetrated by certain large reagent molecules than normal. The dissolution in aqueous buffer solutions of copper-deficient and normal wool after oxidation has been examined and further evidence that the copper-deficient wool is deficient in a sulfur-rich protein fraction, whose absence may he responsible for its physical abnormalities, has been obtained.