104 
Pine  or  Forest  Wool. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t       Feb.,  1885. 
throughout  Germany,  the  birth-place  of  the  industry,  is  manufactured 
from  the  acicular  leaves  of  one  or  more  species  of  pine  previously  ex- 
hausted of  its  volatile  oil  and  extractive  in  the  process  of  boiling. 
There  is  now  in  English  commerce  a  fibrous  article,  in  sheets  like 
cotton  wool,  to  which  the  same  names  of  pine  or  forest  wool,  pine  and 
fir-tree  wool,  pine  leaf  wool,  are  indiiferently  applied.  Samples  of  this 
substance  were  obtained  from  different  sources,  but  they  so  clearly 
corresponded  that  they  pointed  to  one  common  origin.  They  were 
subjected  to  a  micro-chemical  and  microscopical  examination  with  the 
view  of  determining  the  true  nature 'of  an  article  which  is  just  now, 
as  a  fibrous  material,  and  also  as  forming  textile  fabrics,  receiving 
more  or  less  of  attention  from  the  medical  profession  as  well  as  the 
public. 
The  samples  were  composed  of  fine  fibres  of  a  reddish-brown  color. 
When  boiled  in  water  the  color  was  not  affected.  Boiled  in  a  solution 
of  caustic  alkali  a  faint  pine  leaf  odor  was  perceptible  and  the  color 
was  partly  discharged.  A  solution  of  chlorine  completed  the  bleach- 
ing process,  leaving  a  white  fibrous  material  which  was  afterwards 
washed  and  dried. 
A  few  threads  only  of  the  bleached  fibres  were  used  for  the  applica- 
tion of  the  following  reagents  : 
Chloro-iodide  of  zinc  produced  a  violet  tint.  A  solution  of  iodine, 
followed  l)y  sulphuric  acid,  gave  a  blue  color.  The  fibres  dissolved 
completely  in  a  solution  of  ammonio-oxide  of  copper.  The  results 
from  these  simple  experiments  w^ere  sufficiently  convincing  that  the 
fibres  in  question  consisted  of  pure  cellulose,  and  not  that  altered  or 
lignified  condition  of  cellulose  which  the  fibrous  materials  previously 
referred  to  show  under  the  same  reagents. 
It  will  be  understood  that  these  experiments  were  conducted  under 
the  microscope,  and  that  two  or  three  fibres  only  were  used  on  each 
occasion,  so  that  the  observer  was  enabled  to  follow  the  delicate  reac- 
tions which  were  not  visible  to  the  unaided  eye.  The  individual  fibres 
were  then  placed  under  the  microscope,  aided  by  polarized  light,  and 
from  their  physical  characters,  which  confirmed  the  results  of  the 
previous  chemical  reagents,  it  was  evident  that  they  were  neither  more 
uor  less  than  the  unicellular  hairs  on  the  outer  coat  (tesfa)  of  the.  se^ 
of  Gossypium  which  constitute  ordinary  cotton,  whose  habitat  is  not 
Thuringia,  but  rather  the  Southern  States  of  America  or  one  of  the 
other  cotton  producing  countries  of  the  East,  and  that  it  owed  its  brown 
