1 58 MEMOIR ON ANIMAL COTTON. 



It will, perhaps, be wondered at, that experience has 

 not long ago afcertained this fad, but let it be confidered 

 that the filk-worm and its ufe, were known long before 

 any ufe was made of them, and that we are now care- 

 fully repairing the IcfTcs that we have fufFered by the care- 

 lefs indifference of our fore -fathers. 



The fly-carrier may experience the fame fate, becaufe 

 it is lefs difficult to reafon than to make experiments, but 

 I dai'e hope that as foon as it fhall have prevailed over 

 the fophifiry of indolence, it will ftand the competition 

 with filk and vegetable cotton. It is more abundant than 

 either. It requires lefs time and lefs trouble to procure it. 



I have but one word more to add. Silk and vegetable 

 cotton ferve only to envenom and inflame wounds, which 

 is attributed to the afperities of their filaments ; I have 

 frequently employed animal cotton as lint in the hofpital 

 of my plantation, it has ahvays lupplled the want of that 

 made of ilaxen linen, and 1 have not obferved the fmalleft 

 inconvenience to arife from the ufe that I have made of it. 



Had it not been for the troubles that have laid our 

 colony wafte, and which have prevented the necelTary 

 communication, I ihould have brought to you a fly-car- 

 rier in eveiy one of the periods of his life. You would 

 have feen the eggs, the magnificent robe with which he 

 is decked at his birth, the kind of food that he is fond of, 

 the fimple but noble veftment in which he wraps himfelf 

 up on the approach of his tormentors, you would have 

 feen thofe covering his whole body as it were with points, 

 you would have feen him covered with his fhell, and that 

 iame fliell carded, fpun and ready for the weaver. I had 

 in a great degree already executed this defign. 



But it is too well known that I have not been able to 

 fave any thing in my flight from home, you will, how- 

 ever, be able at a future day to afcertain the truth of the 



fad 



