TOUCHING  LINT. 
359 
TOUCHING  LINT. 
Liebig,  in  one  of  his  delightful  letters  on  Chemistry,  affirms 
that  the  quantity  of  soap  consumed  by  a  nation  would  be  no  in- 
accurate measure  whereby  to  estimate  its  wealth  and  civilization. 
From  the  consumption  of  lint  we  may,  with  the  same  certainty, 
deduce  important  conclusions  respecting  the  magnitude  and 
severity  of  a  nation's  battles.  In  a  letter  which  appears  in 
another  part  of  this  journal,  the  effect  of  the  American  conflict 
on  the  trade  in  lint  is  touched  upon,  and  some  interesting 
details  respecting  the  various  kinds  of  lint  now  in  the  market 
are  given.  As  the  war  fever  is  raging  at  the  present  time,  and 
as  the  demand  for  lint  daily  increases,  I  take  the  opportunity  for 
saying  a  few  words  about  this  important  product. 
Lint  was  formerly  prepared  from  old  linen  rags  by  a  process 
which  I  shall  presently  describe.  The  machine-made  lint  now 
generally  used  invariably  contains  a  portion  of  cotton  ;  and  the 
variety  known  as  cotton-lint — the  term  is  an  etymological  con- 
tradiction— is  formed  exclusively  of  this  fibre.  Flax,  which  con- 
sists of  woody  fibre,  is  procured  from  the  inner  bark  of  the  stalk 
of  Linum  mitatissimum  by  the  process  of  steeping  and  stripping 
off  the  bark.  Under  the  microscope  the  fibres  are  readily  dis- 
tinguished from  cotton,  being  round  and  attenuated  to  a  point 
at  each  end.  Cotton  is  composed  of  the  hairs  surrounding  the 
seeds  of  various  species  of  Gossypium.  These  hairs  when  dry 
exhibit  under  the  microscope  a  peculiar  twisted  appearance. 
The  quality  of  cotton  depends  on  the  length,  strength,  and 
firmness  of  the  tissue,  or,  as  it  is  called,  the  staple.  For  the 
preparation  of  lint,  long-stapled  cotton  at  about  lOd.  the  pound 
is  required. 
Flax  lint  is  more  coolino;  to  a  wound  than  that  made  from 
cotton,  as  it  conducts  heat  more  readily.  For  the  same  reason 
a  linen  shirt  is  cooler  than  a  calico  one.  Flax  lint  has  other 
points  of  superiority  ;  it  is  much  softer  in  fibre  than  the  cotton 
fabric,  and  its  absorbing  power  is  greater.  For  many  purposes, 
however,  cotton-lint  may  be  profitably  substituted  for  the  more 
costly  product.  Although  it  is  not  liked  by  the  surgical  profes- 
sion, most  pharmacists  use  it  in  unimportant  cases.  For  wrap- 
ping round  dental  instruments  and  similar  purposes,  it  is  nowise 
inferior  to  the  best  flax  lint. 
