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

366 ANCIENT HISTORY OF
companied them with a Plate exhibiting the obvious difference
between the two classes of objects. The ultimate fibre of cotton
is a transparent tube without joints, flattened so that its inward
surfaces are in contact along its axis, and also twisted spirally
round its axis (See A. Plate VI.) : that of flax is a transparent
tube jointed like a cane, and not flattened nor spirally twisted
(See B. Plate VI.). To show the difference two specimens of
the fibres of cotton, and two of the fibres of mummy cloth are
exhibited, all of the specimens being one hundredth of an inch
long, and magnified 400 times in each dimension. Any per-
son, even with a microscope of moderate power, may discern
the difference between the two kinds of fibres, though not so
minutely and exactly as in the figures of Mr. Bauer.
The difference, here pointed out, will explain why hnen has
greater lustre than cotton : it is no doubt because in linen the
lucid surfaces are much larger. The same circumstance may
also explain the different effect of linen and cotton upon the
health and feelings of those who wear them (See Part Third,
Chap. I.). Every linen thread presents only the sides of
cylinders : that of cotton, on the other hand, is surrounded by
an innumerable multitude of exceedingly minute edges.
Mr. Pettigrew, in his "History of Egyptian Mummies"
[London 1834, p. 95.), expresses the opinion that the bandages
are principally of cotton, though occasionally of linen. He has
since arrived at the conclusion that they are all of linen : and
his opinion appears to be established on the following evidence,
which he gives in a note to the above mentioned work [p. 91.).
Dr. Ure has been so good as to make known to me that which I conceive to
be the most satisfactorj' test of the absolute nature of flax and cotton, and m the
course of his microscopic researches on the structure of textile fibres he has suc-
ceeded in determining their distinctive characters. From a most precise and ac-
curate examination of these substances he lias been able to draw the following
statement :—The filaments of flax have a glassy lustre when viewed by day-light
in a good microscope, and a cylindrical form, which is very rarely flattened.
Their diameter is about the two-thousandth part of an inch. They break trans-
versely with a smooth surface, like a tube of glass cut with a file. A line of light
distinguishes their axis, with a deep shading on one side only, or on both sides,
according to the direction in which the incident rays fall on the filaments.
The filaments of cotton are almost never true cylinders, but are more or less
flattened and tortuous ; so that when viewed under the microscope they appeeir