T rl E S I L K W O R M. 303 



of the cone, then from the other. This whole thread, if ineafured, is 

 about three hundred yards long; and fo very fine, that eight or ten are 

 generally rolled into one by manufafturers. The cone is in form like 

 a pigeon's egg, moil pointed at one end, where the head of the aurelia 

 generally is ; and here the infedt, when a moth, burfts through. After a 

 fortnight or three weeks the aurelia becomes a moth ; when free from its 

 confinement, it appears exhaufted with fatigue, and feems produced only 

 to tranfmit a future brood. It neither flies nor eats ; the male only feek- 

 ing the female : their union continues for four days ; the male dies imme- 

 diately after feparation ; and fhe furvives him only till fhe has laid her 

 e»gs, which are not hatched into worms till the enfuing fpring. 



As their biirfting through the cone deftroys the filk, the manufacturers 

 kill the aurelia, by expofmg it to the fun, before the moth comes to per- 

 fedion, and throw the cones into warm water, till the firft thread offers 

 them a clue for wirding all off". They generally take eight of the filken 

 threads together; the cones ftill kept under water, till a proper quantity 

 of the filk is wound ofi' : they do not take all ; for the latter parts grow 

 weak and bad. The paper-like fubftance which remains, fome ftain 

 with a variety of colours, to make artificial flowers; others let it lie in 

 the water, till the glutinous matter which cements it is diflTolved : then 

 carded like wool, and fpun with a wheel, it is converted into filk fl:ufi^s of 

 an inferior kind. 



THE 



