RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE HOSIERY MANUFACTURE. 81 



them. I am not aware whether they possess any alimentary value, 

 either for men or cattle, not having had a sufficient number to experi- 

 mentalize upon. Lastly, if, according to the vulgar idea, all that smells 

 strong is good in medicine, the odour, sui generis, of the Schottia latifolia 

 gum might indicate some therapeutical properties. 



These are the points which I should like to see investigated by the 

 scientific men who reside in the Cape Colony. P. M. 



11 Impasse Darfour, Alger. 



RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE HOSIERY MANUFACTURE. 



BY WILLIAM FELK.IN. 



It is not possible to fix the epoch of the invention of the art of 

 weaving, or of the first use of a weaving-loom. But there can be little 

 doubt that in the ages immediately following the flood, the employment 

 of rushes and twigs in weaving articles for domestic use, by plaiting or 

 otherwise wattling them, and of twine or threads spun from hair, wool, 

 fibres of trees, flax, cotton, silk, and other suitable materials, by netting 

 or looping them, had become general. By these kinds of rudimentary 

 weaving, fringes, fishing-nets, girdles, and other useful or ornamental 

 articles, were obtained. The use of these materials by handicraft skill 

 led, at a very early period, to the construction of a rude apparatus for 

 weaving cloth, by extending threads longitudinally as warp, probably 

 from one branch of a tree to a neighbouring one, and passing a woof 

 thread across them, over one or more and under one or more of the 

 adjoining threads, till all had been thus traversed ; and then the 

 warp threads, having been altered as to their position by raising 

 some and lowering the others, the woof-thread was repassed through 

 them back again, and so on till the warp was entirely filled up. 

 In Chinese and Indian annals, as also in the Bible, the loom, or one or 

 more of its important parts, as the beam, the shuttle, &c, are mentioned ; 

 and there is reason to believe that the Tabernacle veil of the Jews, the 

 priests' vestments, as also the mummy cerements of the Egyptians, 

 were wrought in looms of a construction very similar to those now in 

 use. Babylon and Damascus were seats of these manufactures of cloth ; 

 the latter continues so to this day. Some are, however, of opinion that 

 a looped fabric was then known. In weaving, or rather knitting hosiery, 

 by hooks or long skewers of wood or iron, it is supposed we have the 

 ancient practice perpetuated whereby Joseph's " coat of many colours," 

 and the "garment woven without seam," taken from the person of 

 Christ, were wrought. In this operation one continuous thread only is 

 used, of which successive loops or stitches are formed, and the loops of 



VOL. IV. H 



