[141] We have abundant testimony that the most beautiful fabrics, comprising mantles, &c., as well as cordage, was produced from the bark of trees, as early as the year 412 B. C. So that Mr. Stebbins’s “historical fact” is anticipated by 2012 years! (See [Chapters XII]. and [XIII]. of this Part.)
We will now conclude this Chapter with Dr. Bowling’s admirable illustration, of the mutual dependence of the arts upon each other:—
“Let us fancy that some thousand years ago, a mortal, wandering through an oriental wood, saw a worm falling from a fruit-bearing tree—that he found this little creature had reached the end of one of its stages of existence, and was laboriously engaged in shrouding itself in an unknown substance, like a fine thread of gold, out of which it constructed its tomb; that, attracted by the circumstance, he found this shroud to consist of a thread hundreds of yards long, which a very little attention enabled him to detach; he found he could strengthen the threads by uniting them together, and they could be applied to various purposes of usefulness; he thought of winding off the thread; the reel lends him the first assistance, but he could not make the reel without the co-operation of a knife, or some such instrument with a sharp edge. Thus the aid of art—of the produce of art—is already called in. With this rude instrument he makes a machine which enables him to reel off the thread coffin of the curious animal. In process of time, he finds that this fine filament can be applied to the making of garments—garments alike useful and ornamental. Now trace the progress of things by which, from the narrow sphere of his observation and experiment, his success spreads through the districts he inhabits, and from them to other lands, and becomes an object of importance to communicate with the whole family of man. By and by the cocoon, or its produce, finds its way to foreign countries, probably more enlightened than his own, again to be operated on by a higher intelligence and more practised skill. This associates the thread of the silk-worm with a ship, with ship-building, and all its marvellous combinations.—Some wandering merchant probably conveyed the raw material to Persia; some adventurous mariner to Greece or Italy, or other regions where it gave a new impulse to science and to thought. But consider for a moment, before the ship was launched upon the water, how many elements were necessary for its production; think of how multitudinous and various the materials which that ship required for its construction, before the products of that remote country are brought to their ultimate markets for manufacture. I refer to this particular topic, because it is associated with the prosperity of the districts in which we are, and I wished to carry back your thoughts to the germ whence that prosperity sprung.”—Bowring’s Lecture at the Poplar Institution.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SPIDER.
ATTEMPTS TO PROCURE SILKEN FILAMENTS FROM SPIDERS.
Structures of spiders—Spiders not properly insects, and why—Apparatus for spinning—Extraordinary number of spinnerules—Great number of filaments composing one thread—Réaumur and Leeuwenhoeck’s laughable estimates—Attachment of the thread against a wall or stick—Shooting of the lines of spiders—1. Opinions of Redi, Swammerdam, and Kirby—2. Lister, Kirby, and White—3. La Pluche and Bingley—4. D’Isjonval, Murray, and Bowman—5. Experiments of Mr. Blackwall—His account of the ascent of gossamer—6. Experiments by Rennie—Thread supposed to go off double—Subsequent experiments—Nests, Webs, and Nets of Spiders—Elastic satin nest of a spider—Evelyn’s account of hunting spiders—Labyrinthic spider’s nest—Erroneous account of the House Spider—Geometric Spiders—Attempts to procure silken filaments from Spiders bags—Experiments of M. Bon—Silken material—Manner of its preparations—M. Bon’s enthusiasm—His spider establishment—Spider-silk not poisonous—Its usefulness in healing wounds—Investigation of M. Bon’s establishment by M. Réaumur—His objections—Swift’s satire against speculators and projectors—Ewbank’s interesting observations on the ingenuity of spiders—Mason-spiders—Ingenious door with a hinge—Nest from the West Indies with spring hinge—Raft-building Spider—Diving Water-Spider—Rev. Mr. Kirby’s beautiful description of it—Observations of M. Clerck—Cleanliness of Spiders—Structure of their claws—Fanciful account of them patting their webs—Proceedings of a spider in a steamboat—Addison—His suggestions on the compilation of a “History of Insects.”
Of spiders there are many species; most of them extend their labors no farther than merely to make a web to ensnare and detain their food. But others are known to go beyond this, and spin a bag in the form of a cocoon, for the protection of their eggs, nearly similar to that of the silk-worm.[142]
[142] Don Luis Nee observed on certain trees growing in Chilpancingo, Tixtala in South America, ovate nests of caterpillars, eight inches long, which the inhabitants manufacture into stockings and handkerchiefs.—Annals of Botany, 2d, p. 104.
Modern naturalists do not rank spiders among insects, because they have no antennæ, and no division between the head and shoulders. They breathe by leaf-shaped gills, situated under the belly, instead of spiracles in the sides; and have a heart connected with these. But as spiders are popularly considered insects, it will sufficiently suit our purpose to introduce them here as such.