THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 231 



wools the fibers are always torn. By far the greater number of the ends 

 of rag wool fibers are formed by the tearing of the fibers ; such ends are 

 less frequent in natural wools. While searching for this important clue 

 great care must be exercised that the fibers are not torn while preparing 

 the material for this examination. What these ends look like can be as- 

 certained by tearing some fiber and viewing it with a microscope. The 

 epiderm will be cleanly torn off and the medulla also that may have been 

 present ; whereas the fibrous layer will be like a painter's brush. This 

 may be distinctly seen after the fiber has swelled in HCl. If numerous 

 or the most visible ends are torn it will be a sure indication that shoddy 

 has been used, that is, if fibers are long ; if not then mungo. Shearings 

 are always very short and generally sharply cut at both ends. 



To quickly ascertain the presence of short hairs it is judicious to partly 

 loosen and get them out of the fabric by beating or rubbing the goods 

 with a stiff brush. 



6. The dye is the most important clue for the detection of shoddy. In 

 the fabrication the rags are first sorted out'as shoddy, extract, mungo rags. 

 Each one of these sorts is again sorted according to color. Many rags 

 have but one color, but the most consist of variously dyed wools and the 

 colors of the different rags are found in the most varying combinations. 



The result is that but few samples of shoddy show one color only ; in 

 fact, even samples of shoddy that seem to be purely white, red, green or 

 yellow, often contain other colored threads. This is due merely to the 

 fact that at present almost all fabrics have a pattern, so that we but seldom 

 obtain purely one colored shoddy. If a red rag contains some single 

 green threads, then red shoddy will be obtained from it, which will natur- 

 ally be detected by the presence of the green threads. For this reason if 

 a yarn thread which has a certain ground tone reveals some or numerous 

 threads of an entirely different, often gaudy color, we can positively as- 

 sert the presence of artificial wool. 



The following circumstances must yet be considered : 



First : If a fabric of yarn is of an undecided gray to brown or black or 

 any other dirty color, and besides this contains threads of all colors, it 

 will consist chiefly of artificial wool. 



Second : If a sheep's-wool fabric has wool fibers mixed or twisted like 

 a thread with cotton (dyed), or an entire or partial cotton warp, then much 

 artificial wool is present. 



Third : Sheep's-wool fabrics that contain cosmos are hardly ever, as re- 

 gards animal fibers, made from pure wool. 



Fourth : Shoddy yarns or threads are to be found more or less concealed 

 within or on the wrong side of the fabrics. They are generally thicker, 

 yet at the same time more apt to tear, and while being torn, cause dust to 

 fly out from material (examine the dust), are more strongly twisted and 



