170 
REMARKS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF COTTON. 
By Edwin Lankester, M.D., F.R.S. 
T HE interest tliat just now attaches to the question of 
the supply of the raw material for our great staple ma- 
nufacture wall perhaps he deemed a sufficient apology for a few 
remarks on cotton from a natural history point of view. 
The discussion of this subject iaaay also draw attention to the 
advantages to be derived from the study of the natural history 
and relations of this important product to other natural pro- 
ductions, by those who cultivate and manufacture it. It must 
be obvious to eveiy one, 'with regard to the raw materials of our 
great manufactures, that it is but prudent that we should not 
be dependent on one nation or one country for our supply, 
as political events or unfavourable seasons may cut off or 
shorten that supply, to the inteiruptioar of business, or the pro- 
duction of great national disasters. In such a condition, how- 
evei*, we are nearly placed in this country by our depend- 
ence on America for the chief article of our manufactu ring 
industry. We can only expect to repair this error by an 
intelligent study of the nature of the plant which yields us 
cotton, and especially the conditions which are necessary for its 
successful cultivation in other parts of the world. It is not 
sufficient that we are anxious to grow cotton in other places, or 
secure it from other sources ; before we embark our capital ha 
such aaa enterprise, we must aanderstaaad the aaature of the soil 
aaad climate in which the cotton-plant of America is cultivated, 
and seek to introduce it iaa those countries which proanise to 
fulfil all the requirements aaecessaay for its successfid production. 
The past history of our attempts at introducing the culture of 
our commercial products is full of interest and instruction. In 
our efforts to iaatroduce the silkworm iaato India we have 
failed, because we have aaot studied the habits of the silkworm, 
haviaag expected that the peculiar species of China and Europe 
would feed on the plants which afford nourishmeaat to the wild 
species of India. The failure of the cultivatiooa of silk in Eng- 
laaad has arisen from the neglect of observation that the mul- 
berry of England was a different species from that on which 
the silkworm was fed on the Continent of Europe. The 
expenditure attendant arporr the iratroduction of the Merino 
breed of sheep iaato England might have been spared, had the 
habits and climate iaa which that animal flourished been studied 
