That the Arabians should have understood the manufacture of silken textures at as remote a period as that supposed by Mr. Forster, viz., 500 years after the flood, is, to say the least of it, exceedingly questionable, yet it cannot be denied that we are indebted to them for many useful inventions, and among which may be mentioned the art of making cotton paper[1]. It is no less true that we first received our cotton-wool from countries where the Arabic language was spoken.
To the Arabs also we are indebted for that almost indispensable article of apparel, the shirt, the Arabic name for which is camees, whence the Italian camiscia, and the French chemise[2].
In the attempt here made to trace from the dark ages of antiquity the progress of trades and manufactures so widely diffused over the civilised world as those of cotton, linen, silk, wool, &c., chronological order is followed as closely as the nature of the inquiry will permit.
