158 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
Figure 34. In the “ Philosoph- 
ical Transactions of 
the Royal Society of 
London,” for the year 
1759, vol. li., p. 54, 
it is stated that the 
Rev. Samuel Pullein 
was among the first 
to attempt to unwind 
the cocoons of the Ce- 
cropia Moth. ‘ Mr. 
Pullein ascertained 
that twenty threads 
of this silk, twisted 
together, would sus- 

Silk of the Cecropia. 
tain nearly one ounce more in weight than the same num- 
ber of common silk. 
We find also, in the ‘‘ Transactions of the American Phil- 
*osophical Society of Philadelphia,” vol. i., p. 294, that Mo- 
ses Bartram, of Philadelphia, as early as the year 1767, 
raised a number of caterpillars from the eggs of the Cecro- 
pia, from which he obtained cocoons. 
«‘ About twenty years ago,” says the Journal des Débats, 
Paris, Juillet, 1846, ‘Mons. Audouin received a box of co- 
coons of the Cecropia and its kindred moths from New Or- | 
leans, and he succeeded perfectly in raising them, and after- 
b 
ward witnessing their several metamorphoses.” 
The Polypheme, Luna, and Promethea Moths also pro- 
duce large cocoons, and silk of the same quality; and our 
lamented friend, Dr. Thaddeus Harris, of Cambridge, Mais- 
sachusetts, says, in his Treatise on Injurious Insects: ‘‘The 
following circumstances seem particularly to recommend 
these indigenous Silk-worms to the attention of persons in- 
terested in the silk culture. Our native trees afford an 
abundance of food for the caterpillars; their cocoons are 
