34 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



The Aztecs made a kind of paper from the leaves of the ma- 

 guey plant, which plant is still grown extensively in portions of 

 Mexico; but the modern Mexican prefers to brew from this plant 

 his " pulque," the national beverage, and his paper is now made 

 from other substances, much like our own. 



To the Chinese, however, has been attributed the manufacture 

 of the first paper made upon modern principles, viz., that of 

 pulping vegetable fibres. 



My attention was called to a work in German and published 

 in 1887, entitled " Die mikroskopische Untersuchung des Papiers 

 mit besonderer Berichsichtung der altesten orientalischen und 

 europaischen Papiere," by Dr. Julius Wiesner, professor of bot- 

 any and vegetable physiology in the University of Vienna. 



This book, a quarto of eighty-two pages, is mainly intended as 

 a history of paper-making, and gives the constituents of writing 

 papers manufactured from the ninth to the nineteenth century, 

 showing the earlier papers to consist of more or less wool mixed 

 with hemp and linen; and later, as made in the eleventh to the 

 fifteenth century, a mixture of wool, linen or hemp, and cotton, 

 heavily sized with glue or starch, prevailed; and in the fifteenth 

 century the use of wool in paper ceased. 



After this, according to this author, the European papers were 

 made of linen and small quantities of cotton combined, but m the 

 early part of the present century cotton was used in larger quan- 

 tities as an adulterant of linen and hemp papers. Later on cot- 

 ton was used as the sole ingredient of the cheaper writing 

 papers. 



This author gives the names of many letters and public docu- 

 ments from which paper has been taken and examined by him- 

 self and others, working together on these historical investigations 

 at this time. He also mentions the labors of Briquet and Caruel 

 in their microscopical researches on papers used from the eleventh 

 to the fourteenth century inclusive. 



Among the older papers examined by Dr. Wiesner there are 

 some found in the tombs of Egypt; others from Arabia, Damas- 

 cus, and other portions of Syria; also many important documents, 

 in Italy and of various parts of Europe from one thousand years 

 ago to the present century. In each case he states from what 

 materials these papers are manufactured, gives the title of the 



