WILDEE, TERMEYER's RESEARCHES UPON SPIDERS. 51 



lY. Researches and experiments upon Silk from Spiders, and 

 upon their Reproduction, by Raymond Maria de Termeyer, a 

 Spaniard. Translated from the Italian. 



REVISED BT BURT G. WILDER, 



[Communicated July 6, 1866. 



Reviser's Preface. 



This little work bears no date, but appears to have been 

 published at Milan between the years 1810 and 1820. The 

 only copy which I have seen or heard of was, according to 

 the letter of presentation, given to Baron de Walckenaer by 

 Mons. de Beam in 1833, and, at the sale of the Baron's 

 library was purchased by Dr. Cogswell for the Astor Li- 

 brary, New York. 



Here it seems to have remained unnoticed until, in the 

 Spriag of 1866, one acquainted with my investigations upon 

 the Nephila plumipes or Silk Spider of South Carolina, 

 was attracted by its title and informed me of its character. 

 Through the kindness of Dr. Cogswell I was enabled to 

 have made a copy of the original Italian, and, in April, the 

 following translation, which has been carefully revised. 



At the end of the work are two plates, the second of 

 which portrays the spiders and their organs as described in 

 the text, but now possesses little or no scientific value, and 

 is not reproduced in this translation. The first, however, 

 is exceedingly interesting as being the representation of a 

 process of obtaining silk from spiders, dilfering only in de- 

 tails from that employed by me at various times and with 

 various modifications since the 19th of August, 1863. 

 (Proceedings Boston Soc, Nat. Hist. Oct. 4rth, 1865, and the 

 Atlantic Monthly for August, 1866.) A process which, 

 original with me at the time, proved also new not only to 

 all scientific and practical men, to whom it was shown, but 

 even to the experts at the Patent Office in Washing-ton, so 

 that a Patent was readily granted for the idea or process 

 of obtaining silk directly from living spiders or other insects, by 



