must warn my readers that most of the woollen materials now in the market are largely adulterated with cotton. This increases their weight, and perhaps improves their appearance, but it decreases the value of the stuff, not only because it is a cheaper material, but because it presents to the wearer the double disadvantage of increased weight and diminished warmth, as well as decreased facilities for transpiration. There are, however, tests by which it is easy to discover whether there is any admixture in the stuff, and two of these are so simple that they can be practised by any one, and should not be neglected when a purchase is to be made. Examination of the material with a microscope is the surest mode of detection, and a thirty-fold magnifier is sufficient for this purpose. The woollen fibre is seen beneath it as a cylindrical, nearly circular body, with a wavy outline; the cotton thread is flat and tape-like with angular folds, as if crumpled.
The second test is to separate the warp and woof, and hold them to a flame; the pure wool becomes a shapeless mass before it is consumed, leaves a shapeless ash, and becomes extinguished directly it is removed from the flame. Cotton or linen thread, however, burns after removal from the flame, and its form is plainly distinguishable in the ash, Threads made of a mixture of wool and cotton burn irregularly. Before purchasing so-called woollen materials, it is well to obtain patterns on which to experiment as here indicated.
The greatest disadvantage of woollen materials
