“There is scarce anything among the various wonders which the animal creation affords more admirable than the variety of changes which the silkworm undergoes; but the curious texture of that silken covering with which it surrounds itself when it becomes a moth, and arrives at the perfection of its animal life, vastly surpasses what is made by other animals of this class. All the caterpillar kind do indeed undergo changes like those of the silkworm, and the beauty of many of them in their butterfly state greatly exceeds it; but the covering which they put on before this change into a fly is poor and mean, when compared to that golden tissue in which the silkworm wraps itself. They indeed come forth in variety of colours, their wings bedropped with gold and scarlet, yet are they but the beings of a summer’s day; both their life and beauty quickly vanish, and they leave no remembrance after them; but the silkworm leaves behind it such beautiful, such beneficial monuments, as at once record both the wisdom of their Creator, and His bounty to man.” On the importance of the silk itself, Kirby and Spence have the following remarks:— “To estimate justly the importance of this article, it is not sufficient to view it as an appendage of luxury unrivalled for richness, lustre, and beauty, and without which courts would lose half their splendour; we must consider it what it actually is, as the staple article of cultivation in many large provinces in the south of Europe, amongst the inhabitants of which the prospect of a deficient crop causes as great alarm as a scanty harvest of grain with us; and, after giving employment to tens of thousands in its first production and transportation, as furnishing subsistence to hundreds of thousands more in its final manufacture, and thus becoming one of the most important wheels that give circulation to national wealth.” [Illustration: THE GEOMETRIC SPIDER] CHAPTER III. MANUFACTURE OF SILK BY SPIDERS. Our history of the silk manufacture among insects would be incomplete without a notice of the labours of spiders. Not only do these insects produce filmy webs to entrap their prey, but they also spin, for the protection of their eggs, a bag not much unlike the cocoon of the silkworm. At the beginning of the last century a method was discovered of procuring silk from these spiders’ bags, and of making it into several useful articles. The experiments took place in France, and it was there discovered that two species of spider in particular produced strong and beautiful silk, capable of being usefully employed. The structure of these insects was closely examined by the celebrated naturalist Réaumur, and he found that the silk is spun from five papillæ, or small nipples, placed in the hinder part of the body; these serve the purpose of so many wire-drawing irons, to mould a gummy liquor, which dries as it is drawn out and exposed to the air. [Illustration: