CHAPTER VII. 
INSTRUMENTS OF THE INSECT: AND ITS 
CHEMICAL ENERGIES, 
AS IN THE COCHINEAL AND THE CANTHARIDES. 
HAVE I insisted too much upon my theme? No, 
I have reached its very depths, its most important 
details. 
Silk is not a particular, but a general view or 
aspect of it, for nearly every insect produces silk. 
Hitherto we have dealt with only one 
kind of silk—that of the bombyx, and indeed that of a species of 
bombyx which is not very fertile. Let us hope that the meritorious 
Society of Acchmatization will introduce here the Chinese bombyx 
(Attacus), which lives on the dwarf oak, whose strong and cheap 
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