LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 77 



purpose of making silk, only allow a few of 

 them to come out, to lay eggs for a future sup- 

 ply; while they remove the floss from the others, 

 throw them into warm water, and stir them 

 about with twigs, so as to wash off the gummy 

 substance that may have adhered to them while 

 the worm was spinning. 



They then take the threads of several cocoons 

 at once, and wind them off upon a reel, after 

 which the refuse, consisting of the floss and 

 gummy silk, which I have told you was imme- 

 diately around the body of the caterpillar, is card- 

 ed like wool, and used for making coarser stuffs. 



The thread which is wound off after the floss 

 is removed is unbroken, and is from six hundred 

 to a thousand feet in length ; and yet the co- 

 coons are so light, that it takes upwards of ten 

 thousand of them to make five pounds of silk. 

 Only think what an immense number of worms 

 must be employed to make the vast quantity of 

 silk we now use. 



Silk worms were originally brought from 

 China and the East Indies, where the first silk 

 was manufactured many hundred years ago, 

 and sent from thence to Europe in small quan- 



