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The late American war caused a famine in the cotton industrial 

 worlds, and a want of that staple article, and all other texile fibrous 

 materials, for the spinner and paper maker, either to be worked 

 alone or as an admixture with wool, cotton, silk, hemp, flax, &c., 

 &c., caused public attention to be turned to anything and everything 

 which could be produced and made available for either of the uses 

 mentioned. The fibrous substance now known in commerce are : — 

 Rhea or ramie, or China grass, Japanese grass. Jute, New Zealand 

 flax. Bamboo, Aloe, Yucca, Espartero or Spanish grass, Algerian, 

 Egyptian diss grass, the various palms and canes, the agave or sisal 

 hemp, oat straw, wheat straw, broom corn, corn-husks, hop vine, &c., 

 without saying anything of the utilisation of wood pulp (for paper), 

 which came prominently into notice, and commanded high prices. 

 Scientific men and mechanical geniuses taxed their brains and skill 

 to produce appliances, machinery, or a process to speedily manipu- 

 late and utilise the best, as well as meanest, of nature's products, 

 and to make them available for the use of man : — at first the want 

 of knowledge of the chemistry of the plant ; second, the use and 

 abuse in the employment of chemicals of the right sort, and in pro- 

 portionate quantities to a given quantity of material in cleansing 

 and bleaching, caused much provocation, discouragement, and loss. 

 Fibres are sensitive, and have an affinity for that which is bad, like iron, 

 which, in course of treatment, takes to sulphur. It had recently 

 been truthfully stated that cotton, " if it is saturated with chromic 

 acid, or with permanganate of potash, and subsequently washed, 

 although the fibre pi'esents no apparent change, it is found to be 

 seriously weakened when treated with any alkali." They had seen 

 tons of the best flax and hemp injured by unskilled men. Whilst 

 a resident in France, he learned that the public documents of 1830 

 in the archives of the French Government were going to destruction, 

 all arising from the improper use of poor material and the more 

 imprudent use of chemicals. Mr. PlimsoU might find that the occa- 

 sion of the loss of more than one good vessel per annum was from 

 tlie use of cheap canvas, used-up duck and cordage, the fibre of which 

 had been partially destroyed by acids. He had to return to his 

 subject. Success crowned the efi'orts of some enterprising spirits 

 — men of great enterprise — whom he could name, and the result 

 had proved that vegetables fibres had been levelled up from the 

 dust immensely, and now held their own as staple articles of 



