22 USEFUL FIBER PLANTS OF THE WORLD. 



THE MICRO-CHEMICAL STUDY OF FIBERS. 



The microscope is a valuable adjunct to the study of fibers, not only 

 for the purpose of determining' the dimensions of the ultimate cell, the 

 thickness of the cell walls, the arrangement of the different kinds of 

 cells in the plant tissue, and the relative abundance of the fiber cells, 

 but all these taken together, with the employment also of certain chem- 

 ical reagents, giving a ready means of determining the identity of the 

 species of fiber where doubt exists as to the kind of fiber that has been 

 employed in the particular manufacture under investigation. The 

 methods to be pursued in this kind of fiber analysis should be fully 

 understood by the textile student, as well as the industrialist and all 

 others who handle fibers and fabrics commercially. 



Among the text-books that may be consulted no better can be sug- 

 gested than the valuable work of M. Yetillart, of Paris, who has given 

 many years of study to the subject. As the publication is in French, it 

 is not readily available to English students. An abstract of the meth- 

 ods pursued by M. Yetillart appears, however, in Appendix B in the 

 valuable paper "On the identification of fibers," which has been spe- 

 cially prepared for this work by Prof. William H. Seaman. 



The identification of fibers involves both chemical and microscopic 

 stud}', in many instances microscopic determination only being i>ossible 

 with the employment of the resources of the chemist, and the use of 

 both systems, therefore, is essential. As the work of Professor Seaman 

 covers the ground most thoroughly, a further consideration of the sub- 

 ject here is unnecessary. 



Among the many wants of man there are two which in all ages and 

 in every clime have been regarded as necessities — food and the cover- 

 ing of the body. The first is an absolute essential to life; the second, 

 an adjunct either to comfort or appearance. In supplying the second 

 necessity man has used the bark, stems, leaves, and roots of trees, 

 shrubs, vines, grasses, and the fibrous growth often provided by 

 nature to protect their fruits during the period of development; he has 

 employed the skins of animals, their shorn hair or wool, and, lastly, 

 the cocoons of the silkworm. 



At lirst vegetable substances could scarcely have been employed, for 

 primitive man was satisfied with the skin of an animal girded about his 

 loins; but in time, with the dawn of creative intelligence, the filaments 

 of bark and wool and hair were rudely twisted into threads and 

 coarsely woven. These libers twisted again into larger threads, as fish 

 lines, when knotted together formed fish nets, with which he was 

 enabled to secure food, or a number of these threads wrought together 

 made bim cordage. His wants increasing as his inventive faculties 

 were more and more developed and lie became more intelligent, he felt 



