Experimental and Applied 301 



There are many considerations of subsidiary importance : 

 thus, on the agricultural side, the habit of the plant and cost 

 of cultivation ; on the mechanical or structural side, the sepa- 

 ration of the fibres from the stem, the uniformity, fineness, and 

 divisibility of the fibre-bundles ; and on the chemical side, 

 the relationship of the cellulose to the non-cellulose constitu- 

 ents both adventitious (wood and cuticle) and essential (the 

 pectic constituents of the fibre proper). A careful considera- 

 tion of these quantities or properties as factors of value will 

 almost tempt the reader, if of a mathematical turn of mind, to 

 propose a numerical expression of value somewhat as follows : 



Taking V = value (in the sense of utility), 

 Y = yield of fibre per acre, 

 L = length of ultimate fibre, 

 P = percentage of cellulose in fibre, 



then V = c. YLP (c being a constant). 

 The factors Y, L, P would require to be qualified by the 

 introduction of the subsidiary factors ; and although these are 

 not expressible in so definite a form, they can be brought to a 

 sufficiently exact approximation. It is not the purpose of this 

 inquiry, however, to attempt a complicated special discussion 

 involving considerations outside our general plan of treatment. 

 With this general suggestion of the relationships of our sub- 

 ject, taken as a whole, to industry, we revert to the considera- 

 tion of the purely chemical problems presented by the celluloses 

 and allied compounds in use. These problems are in effect 

 those of destruction and disintegration. 



Of the textile fibres cotton and flax are by far the most impor- 

 tant, and the position which they occupy is very largely deter- 

 mined by the properties of their cellulose basis. This cellu- 

 lose is amongst C.H.O compounds very much what silver and 

 gold are amongst the metals, manifesting, that is, a high degree 

 of resistance to the chief disintegrating agencies of the natural 



