124 The Rev. F. W. Hope on Silk Insects. 



for home consumption was 4,392,0731bs. and 4,758,453lbs., being an 

 increase of 34- per cent, in the latter year. The value of the ex- 

 ports for those years was 529,990/. and 740,294/., being an increase 

 of 40 per cent, in one year. The average for ten years, from 1814 

 to 1823, and the succeeding ten years, exhibits a more striking and 

 gratifying difference ; the first period giving for annual home con- 

 sumption l,580,6161bs., and the last ten years 3,651,8101bs., being 

 an increase of 131 per cent. 



On the authority of Mr. Winkworth, I state the number of per- 

 sons employed in England in the silk trade in 1823 at 500,000 ; and 

 at the present moment there are probably 700,000 engaged in it. 

 Leaving these details for the present, let us now proceed to the ex- 

 amination of insects producing silk. 



The chief insects which produce silk are ichneumons, spiders, and 

 moths. My friend Mr. Stei:)hens will this evening exhibit to your 

 notice a specimen of ichneumon-silk ; and as it is more likely to 

 prove an object of curiosity than utility, I pass on to spider-silks. 



Several genera of spiders produce silk of various strength and qua- 

 lities, such as the gossamers, and our domestic species, as well as 

 many others. In France, Monsieur Bon had gloves and stockings 

 manufactured of it : sufficient experiments, however, have not yet 

 been made to ascertaiia the quantity and qualities of spider-silk. 



If in Rome the whimsically extravagant emperor Heliogabalus 

 collected 10,0001bs. weight of spiders, as a vain display of power, 

 surely in this metropolis we might collect a sufficient quantity of 

 cobweb to perfect any experiments on a silk likely to be as strong 

 as that obtained from Bombyx Mori, and probably less impervious to 

 wet ; a silk, however, not likely ever to be much in vogue, from the 

 natural antipathy which prevails against spiders, from the difficulty 

 and expense in collecting the web, and the impracticability in breed- 

 ing spiders in any numbers, arising from their voracious and preda- 

 tory habits : but the cocoons might be gathered and unwound. 

 Abandoning our indigenous webs, such as float over our fields, as 

 well as those which hang in dusky wreaths in garrets and in cellars, 

 we may naturally expect to meet with exotic and tropical species 

 which yield silk worth attention. It is probable that the cylindrical 

 sacks of the gigantic Mygale may be advantageously collected, as 

 the cocoons equal in size large walnuts, in one nidus of which 100 

 young ones have been discovered : it is reported, also, that some 

 kinds of web are so strong that birds are entangled in the meshes, 

 and that their webs oppose a certain degree of resistance even to 

 man himself. In concluding my remarks on spider-silk, I would 

 recommend that attention be directed to the silk obtained from 



