Dr. James says: “Silk-worms dried, and reduced to a powder, are, by some, applied to the crown of the head for removing vertigos and convulsions. The silk, and case or coat, are of a due temperament between heat and cold, and corroborate and recruit the vital, natural, and animal spirits.”[828] The cocoons are also the basis of Goddard’s _Drops_, and enter into several other compositions, such as the _Confectio de Hyacintho_, when made in the best manner.[829] With respect to the coloring of silk, we find in “Tseën Tse Wan,” or thousand character classic, a work that has been a school-book in China for the last 1200 years, that an ancient sage by the name of Mih, seeing the white silk colored, wept on account of its original purity being destroyed.[830] Some of the eggs of a wild species of Silk-worm being sent overland from China to Paris, proved a source of considerable anxiety to different parties who received them during the transit, the instructions on the box, instead of simply stating that it contained the eggs of the _wild_ Silk-worm Moth, was couched in the following manner by the French savant who forwarded them: “Must be kept far from the engines; this box contains _savage_ worms.”[831] About twenty-five years ago, during a mania for rearing Silk-worms, to meet the demand for the eggs of these insects, fish-spawn was distributed throughout the country. The humbug was quite as successful as it was curious. It has been said that the search after the “Golden Fleece” may be ascribed to the desire to obtain silk.[832] As a protection against rifle-balls, the Chinese, who were engaged in the rebellion of 1853, state that they wore dresses thickly padded with floss silk; they said that while the ball had a twist in it, revolving in its course, it caught up the silk and fastened itself in the garment. One man declared that he took out six so caught, in one day, after a severe fight. They said the dress was of more use within a hundred yards than at long range, when the ball had lost its revolving motion.[833] Vaucanson, the inventor of the famous “automaton duck,” to revenge himself upon the silk-weavers of Lyons, who had stoned him because he attempted to simplify the ordinary loom, is said to have invented a loom on which a donkey worked silken cloth.[834] The following curious Welsh epigram on the Silk-worm is composed entirely of vowels, and can be recited without closing or moving lips or teeth: O’i wiw wy i ê â, a’i weuaw O’i wyau y weua; E’ weua ei wî aia’, A’i weuau yw ieuau iâ. I perish by my art; dig mine own grave; I spin the thread of life; my death I weave.[835] Arctiidæ--Wooly-bear Moths.