Cotton cloth has no affinity for dyes, which are washed out at once if not fixed by art, because cotton fibre consists of minute tubes generally open at the extremity, which imbibe the dye by capillary attraction, but cannot retain it unless fixed by a mordant, such as the white of a raw egg, which readily absorbs any dye that is mixed with it, and being then laid on the cloth in any pattern it is absorbed by the tubular fibres, and when coagulated by steam or any other application of heat it is immovably fixed. Both animal and vegetable substances afford a variety of mordants. Caseine or cheese, the curd of milk, which may also be obtained from pease and beans, is the mordant most used by calico printers; for if caseine be dissolved in twice the quantity of alkali necessary for its solution, it coagulates like white of egg and may be used in the same manner. Skimmed milk cheese from Scotland and Holland when purified is extensively used in calico printing. The quantity of mordants required is very great, for of all the cotton that was imported into Britain before the late American civil war, one seventh only was manufactured into muslin and printed calico, yet as already mentioned that was sufficient to envelope the earth’s equator nineteen times, and twenty-seven millions of pieces were exported annually. Atmospheric electricity and ozone affect the process of dyeing, and east wind has a retarding and injurious effect. The Lyons manufacturers, not less celebrated for their scientific skill and taste than for the brilliancy of the colours, have an advantage in their fine climate and bright sun. It is a singular circumstance that petroleum has existed in enormous quantities throughout the North American States and a great part of Canada, unnoticed and neglected till the year 1859, when its value was discovered, and it almost immediately formed a new and extensive branch of commerce, for during the succeeding year at least 1,000 wells were dug, some of which enriched the proprietors; others were a failure.