PAPERS RELATING TO NATURAL HISTORY. 197 



.which is so suggestive and instructive that we have no hesitation in 

 copying it entire in this place, notwithstanding that it is not very re- 

 <jent. We refer to the lecture on the '' Substitutes for Paper Mate- 

 rial." We wonder how it happened that, in naming the families of 

 plants which may be tried with most promise for paper material, the 

 Asclepias family escaped Dr. Lindsay's nptice ; perhaps the list would 

 have been most conveniently given in a botanical arrangement, but 

 the syllabus gives an excellent idea of the matter, and is full of inr 

 struction : — 



Part I. — 1. Nature of present Paper Material. Linen and cotton rags; 

 hempen ropes and canvas ; — that is, debris of fabrics made of flax, hemp, and 

 cotton ; re-use of old or waste paper : English Patent. — 2. Scarcity and high 

 -price of present Paper Material. — Causes : 1. Increased demand for — a. Packing 

 Papers ; rapid extension of British commerce. — h. Writing Papers ; postal re- 

 forms and extension. — c. Printing Papers; progress of the cheap press and 

 popular literature ; abolition of newspaper stamp duty ; rise of colonial litera- 

 ture. (One Victoria paper circulates 12,000 copies daily,) Rise and progress 

 of Paper Mache manufacture. Prospective abolition of paper duty ; paper duty 

 arrests development of paper trade ; eflFect of abolition of the tax in creating 

 increased demand. Increase on paper made in 1853, over that made in 1852, in 

 Britain, was 23 millions lbs ; consumption in 1855 was double that in 1845 ; 

 average annual increased demand is 10 per cent. ; price of best rags has risen 

 from 263. to 343., and that of other qualities in proportion. 



2. Diminished supply of rags, &c., in consequence of— a. American competi- 

 tion in continental markets ; no paper duty in America ; three times as much 

 paper used in America as in Britain. — b. Continental nations printing more 

 books and newspapers, and requiring home produce, — c. Use of cetton and flax- 

 waste, Ac, for Railway purposes. 



3. Necessity for providiag substitutes for present Paper Material. — Limitation 

 of supply of crude material the great obstacle to reduction of price of paper. 

 Inducements to discovery of cheap, abundant, and good substitutes: " Times" 

 prize of £1000. — Experiments and Patents in Scotland, England, Ireland, France, 

 Germany, the United States, West and East Indies, &c. — Schaffer's " Sammtliche 

 Papier-Versuche," lll2. — Bering's "Paper and Paper making, — ancient and 

 modern," 1855. — Impetus given to study of economic applications of vegetable 

 fibre by establishment of — a. Permanent lluseums of Economic Botany, or of 

 local or national Industry. — b. Temporary. Exhibitions of local, national, or 

 universal industry. 



4. Essentials of a good Paper Material : must consist of woody fibre; character 

 of latter; " bast tissue.^' — a. Cheapness, — b. Abundance and readiness of supply. 

 — c. Ease of preparation ; little loss in process of conversion. — d. Facility of 

 being bleached. 



, 5. Accegsory advantages in Manufacture of a cheap and good paper, — a. Im- 

 proved machinery for separating and pulping fibre. — b. Improved processes for 



