The suun is a fiber of a plant in the form of a cane (Crotalaria juncea), and the paat or suncheepaat is the thread of a species of spiral (Corchorus olitarius), sold under the name of jute tissues.

The cotton tissues lose about twenty-five per cent. of their weight in bleaching, five per cent. of the substances are dissolved through alkalies, and the other twenty per cent., which are not attacked directly through the alkalies, are removed through chlorine, acids, and the water itself.  The linen and hemp tissues contain eighteen per cent. of substances which are soluble in alkalies, and they lose from twenty-seven to thirty per cent. of their weight when taken through the consecutive bleaching operations.

The substances do not alone include the substances contained in the fabric originally, but also such as are deposited in the preliminary treatment of the fabrics, as dirt from the hands of the operator, and gluten soluble in warm water; as also glue or gelatine, potash or soda, starch, albumen, and sugar, used by weavers, etc., and which are all soluble in water; further, such as greasy matters, calcareous soap, coppery soap, resinous or gummo-resinous matters, and the yellow and green coloring matters contained in textile fabrics, which are soluble in caustic soda; and finally, the earthy constituents which are soluble in acids.

The nature and composition of silk and wool is diametrically opposed to that of the former.  The silk is more of a gummy nature, and is susceptible to decompose into a kind of gelatinous mass if specially treated.

The yellow coloring principle in silk was found only to be contained in a very small proportion, and consisting of several distinct bodies.

The wool contains, first, a fatty matter which is solid at an ordinary temperature, and perfectly liquid at 60 deg.  C.; secondly, a fatty matter which is liquid at 15 deg.  C.; thirdly, a fibrous substance which essentially constitutes the wool in the strict sense of the word.

The wool at least contains three important principles, as it will be known that the fibrous substance disengages sulphur and hydro-sulphuric acid without losing its peculiar properties; and it, therefore, appears probable that the sulphur entered as an element in the composition of a body which is perfectly distinct from the fibrous substance aforementioned.

In treating wool with nitric acid, and taking all possible precautions to determine as accurately as possible the quantity of sulphuric acid produced by the contents of sulphur in the wool by the reaction with chloride of barium, it will be found to contain from 1.53 to 1.87 per cent. of sulphur.—­Wool and Textile Fabrics.

* * * * *

THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA FROM COAL.[1]

By LUDWIG MOND.

    [Footnote 1:  A paper read at the annual general meeting of the
    Society of Chemical Industry, London, July 10, 1889.]