66 WILDER, TERMEYER'S 



1st. The thread of the spider's cocoon carded, ought not to 

 be compared with the thread of the silk-worm's cocoon treat- 

 ed with warm water, but with that which is made of floss. 

 2d. The thread of the spider can be wound also in its 

 natural state, and it becomes then much more brilliant than 

 a thread of any cocoon whatever. It cannot be unwound 

 by placing it in water, since it does not float, and having no 

 gum to be dissolved (except on the side by which it was 

 attached to the ceiling) the thread cannot be unwound lit- 

 tle by little. I can speak of having learned so much by 

 myself in drawing the thread from a cocoon, but I could 

 never draw it longer than a foot, chiefly because at the point 

 where the cocoon was gummed by the spider, in order to 

 attach it, it always broke. I succeeded once with infinite 

 patience in dissolving that gum, and in taking the eggs from 

 the cocoon without breaking the threads ; but being obliged 

 at that time, in 1796, by the siege of the fortress near my 

 house, to abandon it, these researches being interrupted I 

 never more resumed them. 



But I made at that time another observation, which 

 guided me to a more fortunate experiment. I saw that 

 when the spider diadema took an insect, it drew out from 

 the spinner placed at the extremity of the abdomen, some 

 large threads, and enveloped it in a brilliant white web 

 formed at the instant, and so strong that the insect, although 

 sometimes it was a black beetle or a grasshopper, lost all 

 motion. From this I argued that if I could have drawn 

 similar threads, I should have had a strong and beautiful silk. 

 I succeeded in fact, holding the spider by the corslet and 

 touching the spinner, in drawing the silk j but I saw that 

 by contracting the spinner, and yet more, by grappling with 

 the long legs behind, he soon cut the thread. I could hard- 

 ly remedy the contraction of the spinner, but I found a 

 remedy for the second inconvenience, by placing the spider 

 so that it could not touch the extremity of the abdomen 

 (See fig. 3, Plate 1). This is the little contrivance which 

 I devised. In a piece of cork (a) I made a small cavity, 

 and a hollow place of nearly equal size in a sheet of tinned 

 iron (b), about an inch wide, to which were soldered two 

 iron pins or wires (c-c) which were introduced into the cork. 



