Leaders. 61 



try and draw some gut, but fear I shall not be able, even 

 if alive and I find the worms, to draw the gut for I am 

 now well into my eightieth year, and expect and hope to 

 leave soon. With kind wishes, 



" I am very truly yours, 



"T.'GARLICK."* 



In other communications Dr. Garlick states : " I vent- 

 ure the assertion that the fibre of the Attacus cecropia 

 is as strong as that of the B. mori (common silk- worm) 

 by actual test. I have drawn gut from both of these 

 silk-worms, and encountered no difficulty with either. 

 Dr. Sterling, of Cleveland, saw the gut I drew from the 

 A. cecropia. I never place the worm in vinegar prior 

 to drawing the gut ; I should as soon think of placing 

 it in concentrated sulphuric acid. I follow nature as near 

 as possible, and draw the gut from the living worm." 



Dr. Sterling confirms this, if confirmation of any state- 

 ment made by Dr. Garlick be not superfluous. He 

 writes me, "the gut so drawn from the Cecropia was 

 quite round, and all an angler could desire." He fur- 

 ther says that the cocoons can be obtained in any quan- 

 tity in the thickets of the water sycamore which line the 

 swamps and lagoons of Northern Ohio, and that he has 

 gathered half a bushel in half an hour. 



The ordinary silk -worm (B. mori) is large if three 

 inches long and three-eighths of an inch in diameter ; 

 while Dr. Sterling says, " I have seen it (the Cecropia) 

 over four inches long, and as thick as a working-man's 

 thumb." When it is remembered that this bulk is main- 



* Dr. Garlick died December 9th, 1884, universally respected and re- 

 gretted, and leaving behind him that most enviable of records his 

 country is the better for his having lived. 



