The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

DESCRIPTION OF THE SILK-WORM. 101
accident has made men Naturalists, in the highest meaning of
the term. Bonnet, evidently speaking of himself, says, " I
knew a naturahst, who, when he was seventeen years of age,
having heard of the operations of the ant-Uon, began by doubt-
ing them. He had no rest till he had examined into them ; and
he verified them, he admired them, he discovered new facts, and
soon became the disciple and the friend of the PUny of
France*" (Reamur). It is not the happy fortune of many to
be able to devote themselves exclusively to the study of nature,
unquestionably the most fascinating of human employments
but ahnost every one may acquire sufficient knowledge to be
able to derive a higii gratification from beholding the more common
operations of animal life. His materials for contemplation
are always before him.
The silk-worm is a species of caterpillar which, like all other
insects of the same class, undergoes a variety of changes during
the short period of its life ; assuming, in each of three succes-
sive transformations, a form wholly dissimilar to that with
which it was previously invested.
Among the great variety of caterpillars, the descriptions of
which are to be found in the records of natural history, the
silk-worm occupies a place far above the rest. Not only is our
attention called to the examination of its various transforma-
tions, by the desire of satisfying our curiosity as entomologists,
but our artificial wants mcite us hkewise to the study of its na-
ture and habits, that we may best and most profitably apply its
instinctive industry to our own advantage.
It has been well observed by Pullein, a ^vriter on this subject,
that " there is scarcely anything among the various wonders
which the animal creation affords, more admirable than the
variety of changes which the silk-worm undergoes ;" but the
curious texture of that silken covering with which it surrounds
itself when it 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, pass through changes like those of
the silk-worm, and the beauty of many in their butterfly state
* Contemplation de la Nature, part ii. ch. 42.
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