242 THE INSECT WORLD. 



cocoons into the hot water, and moves them about in it, to soften 

 the gummy substance which sticks the silken threads of the 

 cocoon together. Then she beats them, with a light hand, with a 

 small birch-broom. The threads of the cocoons get caught in the 

 extremities of the twigs of which the little broom is made, and the 

 workwoman seizes with her fingers the bundle of threads, and 

 shakes them about till she perceives that they are all single, and 

 in a fit state to be joined together. 



Let us suppose that it is wished now to make up a brin or 

 staple by uniting together the ends of five cocoons. She chooses 

 five ends in the mass, makes of these a bundle, and introduces it 

 into the hole of a Jiliere. She makes two staples (brins) at once, 

 one on her right, the other on her left hand. She then brings 

 them together, she crosses them, rolls them, and twists them, 

 the one on the other, many times ; after which, she separates 

 them from above and keeps them well apart, making each of 

 them pass into a hook at a distance, from which they are going 

 to twist round into a hank, separately, on a wheel. The two 

 threads thus twisted are drawn close together, compressed, and 

 become one, getting round by rolling on each other, and being kept 

 in continual motion, drawn out as they are by the rapid motion of 

 the wheel. 



The difficulty which the emptying the cocoon of its silk thread 

 presents, makes us understand what difficulties those manufacturers 

 must have met with who have lately attempted to extract from 

 the stalks of mulberry leaves a sort of silk. We will enter 

 into no details of the attempts which have been made to accom- 

 plish this object in our time, attempts which have, however, 

 been crowned with no success whatever. We will confine our- 

 selves to reminding the reader that these attempts are far from 

 being of recent origination, since they date back to as far as 

 Olivier de Serres, the father of French serici culture. 



In a little work published by Olivier de Serres, in 1603, under 

 the title of Cueillette de la Sole, " The Gathering of Silk," we find 

 a memoir entitled : La second richesse du Murier qui se trouve en 

 son escorce, pour en faire des toiles de toute sorte, mon moins 

 utile que la sole provenant d'icelui, " The second wealth of the 

 mulberry tree which is found in its bark, how to make of it cloth 



