240 BOMBICID^ — SILK- WORM MOTHS., 



The Chinese fix on rings with threads the females of two 

 species of wild Bomhijx, whose caterpillars produce silk, 

 and place these insects on a tree, or on some body situated 

 in the open air, to allow the males, guided by their scent, to 

 visit them.^ 



''The manner of the Chinese is," we read in Purchas's 

 Pilgrims, "in the Spring time to revive the Silke-worms 

 (that lye dead all the Winter) by laying them in the warme 

 sunne, and (to hasten their quickening, that they may sooner 

 goe to worke) to put them into bagges, and so hang them 

 under their childrens armes."^ 



In China, the pupa3 of the Silk-worms after the silk is 

 wound ofi", and the larvae of a species of Sphinx-moth, 

 furnish articles for the table, and are considered delicacies.^ 

 The natives of Madagascar, who eat all kinds of insects, 

 consider also Silk-worms a great luxury.* 



Aldrovandus states that the German soldiers sometimes 

 fry and eat Silk-worms.^ 



Dr. James says : " Silk-worms dried, and reduced to a 

 powder, are, by some, applied to the crown of the head for 

 removing vertigos and convulsions. The silk, and case or 

 coat, are of a due temperament between heat and cold, and 

 corroborate and recruit the vital, natural, and animal 

 spirits."*^ The cocoons are also the basis of Goddard's 

 Drops, and enter into several other compositions, such as 

 the Gonfectio de Hyacintho, when made in the best manner.^ 



With respect to the coloring of silk, we find in " Tseen 

 Tse Wan," or thousand character classic, a work that has 

 been a school-book in China for the last 1200 years, that an 

 ancient sage by the name of Mih, seeing the white silk col- 

 ored, wept on account of its original purity being destroyed.^ 



Some of the eggs of a wild species of Silk-worm being 

 sent overland from China to Paris, proved a source of con- 

 siderable anxiety to different parties who received them 

 during the transit, the instructions on the box, instead of 



, 1 Cuvier, An. King. — Ins.^ ii. 634. 



2 nigrims, iii. 442. 



3 Darwin, Phytolog., p. 364. Donovan's Ins. of China, p. 6. 

 * Hollman, Travels, p. 473. 



5 Donovan's Ins. of China, p. 6. 



6 Med. Diet. 



■^ Geoifroy, Treat, on Subst. used in Physic, p. 383. 

 8 Twelve Years in China, p. 14. 



