58 Teasels. [Sess. 



one of the latest being the " Moser Eaising Gig," but being less 

 elastic than the fine hooked heads of the teasel, they are more 

 liable to injure the fabric, and are only used for certain kinds 

 of cloth. In consequence of the introduction of artificial 

 machines, the teasel plant has not been so much cultivated in 

 England. It is still cultivated in South Milford, Malton, and 

 York districts. French teasels are, however, now largely im- 

 ported and used, because they are smaller and not so keen 

 as the Yorkshire teasels. They are still used very con- 

 siderably in Yorkshire and in the west of England, but not to 

 the same extent as formerly. Raising machines with wire 

 cards have replaced teasels in a good many manufactories, but 

 flannels, blankets, rugs, doeskins, beavers, meltons, milled 

 worsteds, and all faced cloths, are still raised by teasels. It 

 is remarkable that an ancient and apparently rude contrivance 

 like the teasel should have held the field so long against 

 mechanical invention and progress. It is the only instance 

 on record where art has so long failed to supersede a natural 

 product. 



At the above meeting Mr J. Elrick Eraser read an extremely 

 interesting communication on the cinematograph as an aid to 

 Nature Study. In the course of his paper Mr Eraser gave 

 a detailed description of the apparatus employed in taking 

 cinematograph pictures, and referred to the advantage to be 

 derived from its use in the study of living Natural History 

 objects. The communication was illustrated by a large number 

 of views of living and moving animals, the object being to 

 illustrate the application of the cinematograph to the study 

 of such in their native habitats and under natural conditions 

 of life. Amongst the views exhibited were several especially 

 beautiful, and from a Natural History point of view most 

 interesting, pictures taken by himself at the Bass Rock, in 

 which the flight of various species of birds which resort to 

 that locality was admirably depicted. 



