with Observations on some Manufactures of the Ancients, 357 



Society. I transmitted to him various fibres of cotton and 

 linen, both manufactured and in their raw state, as well as 

 fibres of unravelled mummy cloth, and in a few days I received 

 from him a letter, in which he pronounced every specimen of 

 mummy cloth subjected to his examination to be linen. 



This letter was accompanied by a beautiful drawing, exhi- 

 biting the fibres of both raw and unravelled cotton as flat- 

 tened cylinders, twisted like a corkscrew, whilst the fibres 

 of linen and various mummy cloths were straight and cylin- 

 drical. 



Repeated observations having established beyond all doubt 

 the power of the microscope accurately to distinguish between 

 the fibres of cotton and linen, I obtained, through the kindness 

 of various individuals connected with the British Museum, the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow, 

 as well as other public institutions, both at home and abroad, 

 a great variety of cloths of human mummies, and of animals 

 and birds, which being subjected to the microscope of Mr. 

 Bauer, proved without exception to be linen ; nor has he, 

 amongst the numerous specimens we have both collected du- 

 ring many years, been able to detect a single fibre of cotton ; 

 a fact since recently confirmed by others, and proving incon- 

 testibly that the mummy cloth of Egypt was linen. 



§ii. 



The filaments of cotton when viewed through a powerful 

 instrument, such as the improved achromatic microscope of 

 Ploessl of Vienna, which for magnifying power and clear- 

 ness of vision Mr. Bauer has found superior to every other 

 he has had an opportunity of using, appear to be trans- 

 parent glassy tubes, flattened, and twisted round their own 

 axis. A section of the filament resembles in some degree a 

 figure of 8, the tube originally cylindrical having collapsed 

 most in the middle, forming semi-tubes on each side, which 

 give to the fibre, when viewed in certain lights, the appearance 

 of a flat ribbon with a hem or border at each edge. The 

 uniform transparency of the filament is impaired by small ir- 

 regular figures, in all probability wrinkles or creases arising 

 from the desiccation of the tube. The twisted and corkscrew 

 form of the filament of cotton distinguishes it from all other 

 vegetable fibres, and is characteristic of the fully ripe and ma- 

 ture pod, Mr. Bauer having ascertained that the fibres of the 

 unripe seed are simple untwisted cylindrical tubes, which 

 never twist afterwards if separated from the plant; but when 

 the seeds ripen, even before the capsule bursts, the cylindrical 

 tubes collapse in the middle and assume the form already de- 



