COLTIVAZIONE DFf. COTONE 166
   diinities of Milan and of Venie© were known during the middle ages, and these Italian manu-factures passed first into the Low Countries and thence into England. But the use of cotton was then very limited, and a great portion of the manufactured cottons consumed in Egypt carne from the East Indies, even after the middle of the last century, when this industry received a uew development. It was not before 1773 that Arkwright and Strutt manufactured calicò in Europe, and it was only after 1779 that muslins began to be made in England.
   What has been the brief but most rapid hi-story of the growth of the Cotton manufacture in Europe, may be inferred from the quantities of raw Cotton imported into England during the followiug years:
   1781 . i lbs. 5198 778
   1790 . » 31 447 605
   1800 . » 5G 010 732
   1810 . » 132 488 935
   1820 . * » 151 G72 655
   1830 » 263 961 452
   1840 . " " " " " » 592 488 010
   1850 » 663 576 861
   18G0 » 1 225 989 072
   Ita rapid gresa.
   And bere we must recollect that the marvel-lous iuventions of Hargreaves, of Arkwright, and of Crompton, which createti this great industry, were made before 1780, and that by the disco-veries of Cartwright, of Berthollet, and of Bell, and by the application of steam, the inanufacture of cotton attained, before the end of the last century, almost the perfection which we admire at the present day. The immense progres effected during the present century in this manufacture is owing chiefly to the increased wants of the consumers.