62 
Fibrous Products in India, &c. 
[February, 
II. OBSERVATIONS ON FIBROUS PRODUCTS IN 
INDIA AND OTHER PARTS, 
AND CONCERNING THEIR 
ECONOMIC TREATMENT AND CULTIVATION. 
By G. O’Brien. 
t HE Datives of every country, from time immemorial, 
have been accustomed to utilise their fibrous plants ; 
but want of roads, and the expense of transport from 
one country to another, restricted for the time their use to 
the respective localities where they grew : these hindrances 
no longer exist, and we are gradually becoming acquainted 
with their qualities and value, as also of the various methods 
employed in their preparation, and must acknowledge that 
the natives of Asia were the original discoverers of the 
inventions we still use, and with water as chief solvent. 
But each has much to learn from the other, and although 
the advance has been slow, inventors should be careful in 
putting forth their respective plans, and first ascertain 
whether they are original, as many of the latest methods 
patented have practically been in vogue for thousands of 
years in China and India, having only one fixed purpose — 
the cleansing of the fibre from resinous and calcareous 
matter. 
1 will therefore give the results of laboratory experiments, 
in order to analyse the subject in a practical manner, which 
exhibit that vegetable fibre is the most abundant and general 
ingredient of plants, existing in all their parts, — the root, 
leaves, stem, flowers, and fruit, amounting in compact wood 
to 98 per cent. It is obtained in a pure state by treating 
sawdust successively with hot alcohol, water, dilute muriatic 
acid, and weak potash lye, which dissolve first the resinous 
substances that bind the fibres together ; secondly, the ex- 
tractive and saline matters ; thirdly, the carbonate and 
phosphate of lime ; and lastly, any residuary matter. 
In Europe our most familiar fibre is flax, and attempts at 
various periods have been made to supersede the ancient 
methods of steeping, and retting, using weak acids, solutions 
of caustic potash, and of soda, soap lye, and lime ; but all 
have been found objectionable, as without excess of water 
