222 Scientific Intelligence — Micrography. 



That he might ascertain whether any of the cloths of ancient 

 Egypt were made of hemp, M. Dutrochet has examined with 

 the microscope the weavable filaments of this last vegetable. 

 These last filaments, like those of lint, are of two kinds, the 

 one jointed and the other uniform and continuous. In general 

 the textile filaments of hemp are larger than those of lint ; the 

 jointed filaments are about .0008 of an inch in diameter, that is to 

 say, about twice the size of the analogous ones of lint. With this 

 information, M. Dutrochet has come to the conclusion that none 

 of the ancient tissues obtained from Egypt which he has ex- 

 amined, have been made of hemp. Hence it is lint alone which 

 has been used by the ancient Egyptians in the fabrication of such 

 of their cloths as were manufactured from vegetable matter, and 

 we may thence conclude that, contrary to the general opinion, 

 they were not acquainted with cotton. The question then oc- 

 curs, what is the substance which is called hyssus {^haaoi) by 

 Herodotus, and with which, according to him, was manufactured 

 the cloth with which the mummies were enveloped. " May we 

 not conceive," says M. Dutrochet, " that this word may have 

 expressed the filamentous weavable matter which lint supplied, 

 in the same way as the words ^aj; and tow express among 

 ourselves that same filamentous weavable material, supplied 

 both by Unt and hemp. This will explain the cause of the error 

 so generally committed by the learned, who, perceiving in He- 

 rodotus that the cloths of the ancient Egyptians were manufac- 

 tured from lint and byssus, thence concluded that the lint was 

 different from the byssus. Having once come to this conclusion, 

 they inferred that byssus could be nothing else than cotton." — 

 M. Dutrochet concludes by telling us that the twisting of the 

 Egyptian threads was effected in a direction contrary to the one 

 now generally in use. After the reading of this communication, 

 M. Costaz remarked, that, amongst the paintings of the grottos 

 of Elethyia, and whose description is given in the great work 

 on Egypt, a field is represented in which the workmen are en- 

 gaged in pulling up lint, and separating the seed from the stalks. 

 This observation, which proves the culture of lint on a great 

 scale in ancient Egypt, suggested to M. Costaz reflections re- 

 specting the wrappings of the mummies analogous to those which 

 had occurred to M. Dutrochet. 



