54 WILDER, TERMEYER'S 



ments similar to his, arrived at opposite results, I shall un- 

 dertake in the first place to enquire what weight or founda- 

 tion the difficulties which he proposes, may have ; then I 

 shall add my own observations upon the natural history 

 and especially upon the propagation of spiders which I be- 

 lieve to be new and important, and, above all, tending to 

 prove that they may be cultivated so as to derive advantage 

 from their silk. 



The obstacles which Reaumur considers strongest and, 

 in his opinion, insuperable are : 1st. The difficulty of 

 obtaining such a number of spiders as shall give a product 

 sufficiently great to compensate for the labor and equal 

 that which, with less inconvenience, may be obtained from 

 the silk- worm. 2d. The extent of -space which a colony of 

 spiders requires, both from the length of their threads and 

 the webs and from their ferocity which leads them, when 

 they find themselves near and especially when incommoded, 

 to devour each other, whereas for the silk-worms only so 

 much space is required as is occupied by their bodies with 

 a little additional space for the construction of their co- 

 coons. 3d. The necessity of feeding spiders greedy and 

 thirsting for the blood of living creatures, and the extreme 

 difficulty of obtaining this ; while silk-worms are easily fed 

 with leaves and in some places are allowed to live upon the 

 trees with no other care than that of gathering their co- 

 coons. 4th. The small quantity of silk which is obtained 

 from the spiders in comparison with the products of the 

 worms. 5th. The quality of spiders' silk, far inferior in 

 brilliancy and consistence to that of the worm. 



"Wishing then to show how profitable the culture of spi- 

 ders for the production of silk may become more profitable 

 even than the culture of silk worms I have only to prove 

 the invalidity of the objections here stated. 



I. 



FACILITY OF MAKING AN ABUNDANT COLLECTION OF A GIVEN SPECIES 



OF SPIDER. 



Reaumur himself admits that whereas spiders can be 

 sought in all the corners of uninhabited houses, among 

 ruins, under floors, upon the trunks of trees and espec- 



