The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

THE LINEN MANUFACTURE. 363
1811) he says, he is more firmly convinced than ever, that the
cloth is universally cotton. He assigns also his reasons in the
following terms. " I ground this my conviction far less on my
own views than on the assurance of such persons as I have
questioned on the subject, and whose judgment in this matter I
deem incomparably superior to my own or to that of any other
scholar, namely, of ladies, dealers in cotton and linen cloth,
weavers and the like." He also refers to the cultivation of
cotton in Egypt, which he assumes probably on the authority
of Forster ; and to the fable of Isis enveloping in " cotton"
cloth the collected limbs of her husband Osiris, who had been
torn in pieces by Typhon. The latter arguments are founded
on the supposition, that the ancient term Byssus meant cotton,
and not linen. But the question as to its meaning must in
part be decided, as we shall see hereafter, by previously settling
the present question as to the materials of the mununy cloth.
The opinion of ladies, tradesmen, and manufacturers, though
it may be better than that of the most learned man, if derived
from mere touch and inspection, is quite insufficient to decide
the question. If those whom Blumenbach consulted thought
that the cloth was always cotton, many others of equal expe-
rience and discernment have given an opposite judgment ;
and
the fact is, that linen cloth, which has been long worn and often
washed, as is the case with a great proportion of the munmiy
cloth, and which is either ragged or loose in its texture, cannot
be distinguished from cotton by the imassisted use of the exter-
nal senses.
Relying, however, on the same evidence of ocular inspection,
another distinguished author, who travelled in Egypt and pub-
Ushed his remarks about the same time, says, "As to the
circumstance of cotton cloths having been exclusively used in
the above process, an inspection of the mummies is sufficient
evidence of the fact*."
M. Jomard, one of the authors of the great French work on
Egypt, pubUshed about 1811, paid great attention to this sub-
ject. He concluded, that both linen and cotton were employed
» ^gyptiaca, by William Hamilton, Esq. F. R. S. London, 1809. p. 320.