On the Sludy of Natural History. 83 



process should be carried on in a very warm room, otherwise 

 the liquid thread is apt to snap. The fibres thus prepared 

 should be carefully preserved from dust for a day or two, till 

 completely dry ; they may then be examined by a microscope, 

 and the most even and parallel selected. In this way we 

 obtain artificial cobwebs, having the same opacity, and the same 

 power- of enduring the solar spectrum as common ones, and 

 which appear to me to bear as much rough usage, damp, &c. as 

 can reasonably be desired in such delicate fibres ; for when the 

 turpentine has evaporated, they are lefl neither more nor less 

 than unchanged caoutchouc. 



On the Importance of preserving Facts connected with the 

 Natural History of Animals. By William Swainson, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., ^c. 



The chief reasons why the study of Natural History in this 

 country is less popular than others and much less attractive, 

 appears to be the prevalent notion that it is now become a 

 science too vast and too difficult for general cultivation ; — that 

 no sooner is one system established, than it begins to give place 

 to another : — ^that to discover the scientific cause of any one 

 object, expensive libraries must be consulted, or national mu- 

 seums referred to ; — that the student is unassisted by that pub- 

 lic instruction which is afforded him in every other department 

 of science ; — that its application to the comforts or conve- 

 niences of life is remote or indirect ; — and finally, that the 

 natural history of those animals we are daily in the habit of 

 seeing, is too well known to require any very particular attention. 



With the hope of exciting more general attention to this sub- 

 ject than it at present receives it will be my object, in this 

 sketch, to show that many of these objections are magnified, 

 and that others are without real foundation. 



To take such a comprehensive view of this, or any other 

 science, as will sensibly extend the boundaries of knowledge, 

 and remove its present land-marks, is, indeed, an eminence 

 which few, under the most favourable circumstances, can hope 



G2 



