January 14, 1897] 
NATURE 
243 
ordinary conditions of wear and tear, and as they undergo 
oxidation somewhat readily, they gradually perish and 
become rotten. Yet, as Messrs. Cross and Bevan point 
out, in the case of papers used for writing and printing, 
permanence is a first desideratum : — 
“ Books and records have more than a passing value, 
and it is essential that they should be committed to pages 
suitably resistant both to chemical and mechanical wear 
and tear . . . there zs no public opinion in this country 
upon this important subject. Where preferences for high- 
class papers exist, they are based rather upon esthetic 
and other recondite considerations than upon any judg- 
ment as to composition and the relation of their con- 
stituents to the destructive agencies of the natural world. 
On this basis, while papers admit of a very simple classi- 
fication into three main groups: (A) Those composed of 
the normal and resistant celluloses only—e.g. cotton, 
linen ; (B) those composed of celluloses containing oxi- 
dised groups or oxycelluloses— e.g. wood-cellulose, 
esparto and straw celluloses ; (C) those containing, in 
admixture with the above, ground wood or mechanical 
wood pulps (ligno-cellulose) . . . Class A stands beyond 
criticism. . . . fibres of Class B have been introduced 
in response to the enormously increased consumption of 
paper in this century. . . . their use in books is open 
to the very obvious objection that the books are more 
perishable. Of course, it is perfectly true that a large 
amount of literature is of the ephemeral kind, and in 
this province such questions as we have raised do not 
enter ; on the contrary, paper being very much cheapened 
by the use of these celluloses, a great advantage is gained. 
It must be insisted upon, however, that authors and pub- 
lishers should have a definite judgment as to the papers 
to which they commit their productions, and it would be 
of the greatest utility to exhaustively investigate these 
particular celluloses from the point of view of their re- 
sistance to the natural processes of decay. Class C: 
The presence of ligno-cellulose is a more extreme de- 
parture from the sound basis of composition repre- 
sented by Class A... papers of this class are only 
permissible where lasting properties are a question of 
no moment whatever.... The practice of loading 
papers with china clay... is also another of the 
causes which lead to disintegration of modern papers 
as compared with those of former days. There is, of 
course, the other side to this question, the addition of 
these mineral diluents having certain positive advan- 
tages not to be overlooked. The danger of any prac- 
tices of this kind only enters when they are not measured 
at their proper utility. Paper zs largely taken for granted 
éy consumers. Ina great many, perhaps the majority of 
cases, this uninquiring consumption is not attended with 
any serious consequences ; but, on the other hand, it is 
quite obvious that it is attended with dangers of a very 
¢rave character, when we are dealing with records of 
value for all time. This, of course, is largely a question 
for posterity, to whom we are handing down a literature 
produced upon grounds for the most part of mere com- 
mercial expediency. Jt zs high time, as we have said 
Lefore, that a public opinion should be formed upon this 
subject, and it can only be formed upon a recognised 
classification of papers, based upon the mechanical and 
chemical constants, which are determinable by laboratory 
investigation.” (The italics are introduced by me.) 
But there is a sunny side to Messrs. Cross and Bevan’s 
disclosures, as they appear to offer a method of over- 
coming some of the difficulties introduced by the plethora 
of publications with which we are overwhelmed at the 
present day, and foreshadow a course of action by which 
readers of scientific papers might be greatly helped. If 
we remember that cotton cellulose is unaffected by aniline 
NO. 1420, VOL. 55] 
salts, which colour the oxycelluloses yellow to red, 
we can imagine what the result might be if all books 
worth preserving, and just those parts of our scientific 
papers which are really worth consideration, were printed 
on sound rag paper. On receipt of a journal, a light 
wash of aniline solution might be applied to each page : 
soon afterwards a rosy blush would pervade the greater 
number, only a few here and there, or those just at the 
beginning or the end of a paper, retaining their virgin purity 
of tone: we should at once know what was padding, copied 
from the note-book to produce an impression of much 
labour expended and of deep learning! Works could 
be avoided by budding authors who in the process of 
self-education had given birth to compilations to 
satisfy wants” felt by themselves alone, and the choice 
of students restricted to trustworthy sources of informa- 
tion. And the joy of the reviewer would also be great, 
as he could ascertain what value author and publisher 
placed on a book, especially if a standard series of tints, 
corresponding to the several varieties of paper, had been 
agreed to ; moreover, it would not be necessary to read 
reviews, and advertisements could be curtailed—as the 
words “Printed on Class A paper” would serve as a 
recommendation far better than any garbled “ Opinions 
of the Press.” I do not propose to protect the idea, but 
offer it freely to our Royal and other Societies, although 
I am aware that a patent is said to be a good advertise- 
ment, and the best means of enforcing use. Indeed, I 
trust that, in making the suggestion, I am but showing 
that I have derived profit from Messrs. Cross and 
Bevan’s invaluable book, which is most properly printed 
on Class A paper. 
As they truly remark at the close of their work, the 
chemistry of cellulose 
“is a province -of applied chemistry where, as in many 
others, the distinctions between ‘science’ and ‘ practice’ 
exist only in the minds of those who grasp neither the 
one nor the other. Manufacturers and technical men, 
if they will only take the trouble to inform themselves, 
must see that an enormous field of natural products and 
processes about to be explored has a number of indus- 
trial prizes and surprises in store ; scientific men who 
have to undertake the pioneering work in this field will 
find sufficient stimulus to effort in the promise of dis- 
covery.” He Bas 
EARLY CHALDEAN CIVILIZATION. 
Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, &c., in 
the British Museum. Part I. By L. W. King, 
M.A. Printed by order of the Trustees. Pp. iv + 50 
plates. (Kegan Paul, Longmans, and others, 1896.) 
UMOURS must have reached the general reader 
from time to time of the “finds” of tablets which 
have been made by the natives in Southern Babylonia ; 
and it is a matter for congratulation that, judging by what 
we see in the volume before us, the results of these 
“finds” have been acquired by the Trustees of the British 
Museum. We have long been familiar with tablets of 
Assyria and Northern Babylonia, and it has long been 
evident that their contents were taken from clay docu- 
ments which belonged to a much older period, and were 
the literary offsprings of a people whose early history had 
then disappeared in the mists of a remote antiquity. The 
