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

108 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF SILK.
On either side of the head, near to the mouth, seven small eyes
may be discerned. The two broad appearances higher upon
the head, which are frequently mistaken for eyes, are bones of
tlie skull. The two apertures through which the worm draws
its silken filament are placed just beneath the jaw, and close to
each other ; these being exceedingly minute.
At the period above-mentioned the desire of the worm for
food begins to abate : the first symptom of this is the appear-
ance of the leaves nibbled into small portions and wasted. It
soon after entirely ceases even to touch the leaves j appears
restless and uneasy ; erects it head ; and moves about from side
to side, with a circular motion, in quest of a place wherein it
can commence its labor of spinning. Its color is now light
green, with some mixture of a darker hue. In twenty-four
hours from the time of its abstaining from food, the material
for forming its silk will be digested in its reservoirs ; its green
color will disappear ; its body will have acquired a degree of
glossuiess, and have become partially transparent towards its
neck. Before the worm is quite prepared to spin, its body will
have acquired greater firmness, and be in a trifling measure
lessened m size.
" The substance," says Mr. Porter, " of which the silk is
composed, is secreted in the form of a fine yellow transparent
giini in two separate vessels of slender dimensions, v;oinid,
as it were, on two spifidles in the stomach ; and if unfolded,
these vessels woidd he about ten inches in loig-th*.'' This
statement is proved to be erroneous, as the reader will perceive,
at the conclusion of this chapter.
When the worm lias fixed upon some angle, or hollow place,
whose dimensions agree with the size of its intended silken
ball or cocoon, it begins its labor by throwing forth thin and ir-
regular threads, see Figure 2. Plate III., which are intended to
support its future dwelling.
During the first day, the insect forms upon these a loose
structure of an oval shape, which is called floss silk, and within
which covering, in the three following days, it forms the firm
* Porter's "Treatise on the Silk Manufacture," p. 111.