INSECTS IN RELATION TO MAN. 503 



No other insects that have been used as medicines, for instance, the 

 ladybird ( CoccineUit), against the toothach, have exhibited such 

 general utility, nor are there any insects in any of the other orders 

 which have shown themselves as useful or important as medicines. 

 Formerly the formic acid was used as a volatile stimulant, whence it 

 was applied to paralytic affections, but it does not appear to have 

 exercised much influence upon it. The tannin of galls, produced 

 by the punctures of many small hymenopterous insects belonging to 

 the genus Cynips, has been applied as an astringent. 



Among those insects which either in themselves or in their produc- 

 tions present man with materials which his skill has converted into 

 clothing or articles of luxury, the first place is occupied by a lepi- 

 dopterous insect, namely, the silk-worm (Liparis mori). The web in 

 which this caterpillar encloses itself upon its change into the pupa is 

 the raw silk, from which, after passing through several preparations 

 and manipulations, the most beautiful material which human skill ever 

 produced is woven. Originally a native of China, this material was early 

 conveyed to the Greeks under Alexander, and subsequently to the 

 Romans, who also knew the mode whereby it was obtained from a cater- 

 pillar * ; but this itself remained unknown to them, until, lastly, some 

 monks, in the reign of Justinian (about 550 after Christ), brought the 

 first cocoons to Constantinople. From here the cultivation of the silk- 

 worm spread about 1 150 to Sicily and Italy, whence, under Charles the 

 8th and Henry the 4th, the French transplanted it to France ; since 

 this period silken raiments have become more general and cheaper. 

 Even in Germany its cultivation has been attended with success, but 

 which does not appear to be profitable. Upon the Rhine, in Wurtem- 

 berg, and in Westphalia, it is still cultivated, where the silk is manu- 

 factured as a native produce. Thus the worth of silk has infinitely 

 fallen, and consequently its use has increased in the same ratio. Other 

 allied caterpillars also produce silk, especially the species of the genus 

 Atlacus and some South American Papilios, which are no further 

 known. In Peru, even in the time of Montezuma, materials were 

 manufactured from the silk, known by the name of mistcka, of these 

 caterpillars. 



* See Dr. J. F. Brandt and W. F. Erichson, Monographia generis Meloes. In Nova 

 Acta Csss. Leop., t- xvi. part ii. p. 101, &c. 



-f See Keferstein upon the Bomhyx of the ancients, in Germar's Magazin, vol. iii. 

 p. 8, &c. 



O 2 



