FROM KNOWN TO UNKNOWN 7 



the wild Cannabis Sativa in a moderate climate of Asia, the rich 

 soil it needs for its growth and the various countries of the world 

 into which it has been introduced ; and the bast-fibres of the bark 

 of this plant which from remote antiquity has supplied the silky 

 stuff. He then tells me how the stems are dried and crushed, and 

 then of the important stage of fermentation or " retting " in water, 

 how they are again beaten in a * ' break, ' ' then ru bbed and ' ; scutched , ' ' 

 and finally " heckled " or combed ; and, as to analytic chemistry, 

 he tells me that the chief constitutent is cellulose. This quest is 

 now over and I know much I could not find out by the backward 

 method, though the dependence of its rival upon the presence of 

 honest and capable eye-witnesses is not less obvious. It is not alone 

 in ecclesiastical history that cheats and forgers of documents exist. 

 In the world of Nature there may be, for all we know, biological 

 False Decretals that may lead us far astray, such perhaps as 

 Amphioxous and Archseopteryx, and the Pseudo-Isidore who 

 produced them may yet be discovered. 



