On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 71 



of any value, or in any quantity, that could then be obtained, was 

 procured from it, and it was only gradually that it gave way before 

 the cheaper and more beautiful fabric. The animals inhabiting the 

 Pinnae have the power of fixing themselves to any substance, by 

 throwing out an extensile member, and discharging from its tip a 

 drop of gluten, which, by the retraction of the same organ, is formed 

 into a silky filament, and by frequently repeating this operation a 

 thick tuft is formed, by which the shell is fastened in any situation 

 the animal chooses.* It is of these silky filaments, which are of a 

 rich gold color, that cloth was made ; and of such value was it, that 

 for a long time none but monarchs and persons of high rank wore it, 

 as their robes of state. 



There have been endless disputes among commentators, what ma- 

 terial was meant among the Greeks and Romans by the word JByssus, 

 and they have not unfrequently confounded the Byssinum, the Bom- 

 bicina, and the Sericum of the ancients altogether as one. Some 

 have supposed the Byssinum to be a cotton, some make it the same 

 with the Sericum, and others, very fine linen. The fact however 

 seems to be, that the word was frequently applied indiscriminately 

 to any texture finer than woolen ; but on speaking appropriately, it 

 was used solely for the stuff manufactured from the produce of the 

 Pinna.f It was in use during the earliest periods, as we find David, J 

 B. C 1043, clothed with a robe of it, and we can trace it as an arti- 

 cle of commerce until near the end of the fourteenth century. The 

 Hebrew word is Butz, but is in general erroneously translated, and 

 in our version of the Bible is confounded with real linen and cot- 

 ton, under the name of " fine linen." It does not appear in the text 

 of Moses ; and the only books in which it occurs are Chronicles, 

 Ezekiel<§> and Esther. || In Chronicles we see David with a mantle 

 of Butz, with the singers and the Levites. Solomon used it in the 

 veils of the temple and sanctuary. IF Ahasuerus' tents were upheld 

 by cords of it ; and Mordecai was clothed with a mantle of purple 

 and Butz, when king Ahasuerus honored him with the first employ- 

 ment in his kingdom, about B. C. 509. It was among the mer- 

 chandize imported into Tyre from Syria, enumerated by Ezekiel, 



* Dillwyn, III. 24. 



t " 'Ai 6s "tfivvKf 'op^aiipuovTai 'sx (Sucfcfou 'sv rots 'afx^w^stfi xai ^op/3opw. 

 osrfiv ; and Duval in explanation adds, "ex bysso, id est, villo, sive lana ilia pin~ 

 nali" — Aristotle, Oper. omnia. Paris, mdcxxix ; torn. II. p. 844. 



t I Chron. xv. 27. § Ezek, xxvii. 16. II Esther, i. 6. vii- 15. 



f 2Chron. jji. 14, 



