Benefits. 257 
And thus Parnell says of his hermit : — 
“ To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, 
To find if books or swains report it right, 
He quits his cell, the pilgrim staff he bore, 
And fixed the scallop in his hat before.” 
You will now admit that the Molldsca have contributed 
their due share to ornament “ the outward man;” and you 
could scarcely expect such animals to do more in the way 
of clothing us. Nor do I mean to surprise you by find- 
ing amongst them a rival to the silk-worm, for indeed the 
claims of the silk-spinning Mollisca are very trifling. But 
the Pinne (jg. 46.), a curious genus of the bivalved class, 
do spin a kind of silk, which 
has been woven into some ar- 
ticles of dress, which in early 
times were so highly prized 
as to be worn only by em- 
perors and kings. This silk 
is the beard, or rather the 
cable, of the animal, by means 
of which it is moored to the 
rocks, in the same manner that 
our common muscle is. Ina 
crude state the silk is called 
lana penna. It is cleansed 
from its impurities by washing 
in soap and water, drying and 
rubbing with the hands. * It 
is then passed through combs 
of bone, and afterwards, for 
finer purposes, through iron 
combs, or cards, so that a 
pound of the coarse filaments 
is usually reduced to about 
three ounces of fine thread. 
When mixed with about one 
third of real silk, it is spun on 
the distaff, and knit into gloves, 
caps, stockings, vests, &c., 
forming a stuff of a beautiful 
brownish yellow colour (resembling the burnished golden 
hue on the back of certain flies and beetles), but very lable 
to be moth-eaten, and requiring to be wrapped in fine linen, 
A pair of gloves costs on the spot about six shillings, and 
a pair of stockings eleven; but its sale is not very extensive, 
