CO^[^IERCIAL VALUE OF SPIDER SILK. 85 



different dyes. From this product, in the natural color, M. Bon obtained 

 two or three pairs of stockings and gloves of an elegant gray color, which 

 were presented as samples to the Academy. The pamphlet in which these 

 novel results were made known attracted much attention. 



In 1710 the Academy of Sciences of Paris deemed the question suffi- 

 ciently important to investigate thoroughly, and accordingly commissioned 

 the eminent entomologist Reaumur to prepare a report upon the 

 Reau- invention of M. Bon. Reaumur took up and prosecuted the in- 

 R "'' u fl'-^iiy ^^'il^^^ much intelHgence and zeal, and came to tlie conclusion 

 tliat the culture of spider silk coulil not be made a profitable 

 industry in Europe, although he intimated that exotic species might repay 

 further attempts. The difficulties which proved most formidable lay both 

 in the maintenance of the animals and the nature of the silk product. 

 He computed that more than half a million spiders (663,522) would be 

 required to produce a pound of silk, and to procure natural insect food for 

 this vast multitude appeared im^iossible. This obstacle, however, was partly 

 overcome by the discovery that spiders would subsist upon chopped earth- 

 worms, and upon the soft ends or roots of feathers. 



Then the solitary habit and indiscriminate voracity of the araneans 

 presented serious difficulty. They could not be trusted together, or near 

 one another, for unless separated by artificial barriers they waged ceaseless 

 warfare, and great numbers were slain and eaten. This cannibalistic pro- 

 pensity immensely increased the difficulty of breeding and maintaining 

 a spider plant. The supply of silk obtained from cocoons, moreover, 

 is necessarily limited by the fact that they are not true cocoons, as 

 spun by the larvse of both sexes of insects, but egg bags woven by females 

 alone. 



Further, M. Reaumur decided that spider silk is greatly inferior in 

 strength and substance, the silk worm producing a thread ninety times as 

 strong proportionately. He also adjudged the advantage to be with the 

 insect silk in lustre. In both these points the spider product seemed un- 

 available for weaving cloth. 



A half century after Bon's attempt, A. D. 1762, the Abbe Raymond 

 de Termeyer, a Spaniard, took up the matter, and for more than thirty 

 years (1762-1796) pressed his investigations and experiments with 

 Abbe admirable ingenuity and persistence, not only in Europe, but in 

 '^^^' , South America with the large fauna of that continent. He in- 

 meyer s y^^^^^^i^ .^ method of confining the spider while he reeled off the 

 ments. extruded silk ; but his experiments brought the establishment 

 of a profitable industry in spider silk no nearer solution than 

 M. Bon had done. The whole amount of thread obtained in all his ex- 

 periments did not exceed fifteen pounds. Perhaps had he not been called 

 away from America, his most promising field, by what he terms " an 

 unexpected command and an irresistible power," we might have chronicled 



