33 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



The reason of this examination was that my friend, Dr. T. B. 

 Stillman, professor of analytical and applied chemistry at the 

 Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, received from a 

 firm of engravers a specimen of paper which had been offered 

 to them as *' linen paper," suitable lor some of their purposes. 

 They wished Dr. Stillman to make a hasty determination of the 

 paper and report as to its constituents. He undertook to do this 

 by chemical means, but, on account of a similar reaction by nearly 

 all vegetable fibres composed of cellulose, his analysis proved 

 unsatisfactory to himself. He looked over many written author- 

 ities upon the investigation and manufacture of fine paper, and 

 concluded that chemistry alone would not solve his difficulty, 

 and that, if the constituents were to be fully determined, the 

 microscope must be brought in to complete the analysis. 



He asked me to assist him in the case, as he was not an expert 

 in the handling of the microscope. I, who had never undertaken 

 the systematic examination of paper, however, consented to aid 

 him in the analysis of this, which we shall call our " suspected 

 paper." Like many microscopists, I had casually examined 

 fibres of linen, cotton, silk, etc., and had in a general way run 

 through sections of various woods ; but when at this time I 

 undertook to examine various papers and paper pulps, I, for want 

 of experience, found myself entirely "at sea." This "suspected 

 paper" seemed to more particularly puzzle us. It had in its 

 appearance much of the straight-fibred characteristics of linen, 

 but it also showed cotton, and in the tangled mass upon the 

 slide other matter cropped out with which I was unacquainted. 

 In short, after making numerous examinations and comparisons 

 with several woods and a variety of papers and pulps, we arrived 

 at the conclusion that this " suspected paper" was composed of 

 a little linen, much cotton, and some wood, mainly poplar ; it 

 having probably been largely made up of old or repulped paper, 

 heavily sized and nicely finished. I have but a small piece of 

 this paper here, which I offer for examination. 



Up to this period I was not aware of the use of so large an 

 amount and variety of woods in the manufacture of writing and 

 other of the finer papers, supposing that merely newspapers, 

 books, and printers' common stock were made from wood pulps. 

 Much less did I know of the various misrepresentations of the 



