444 SUPPLEMENT 



the water the soap with which they were impregnated. They 

 were then suffered to dry, and softened a little with the fingers, 

 to fit them for being carded the more easily. This carded 

 silk was easily spun upon a spindle. The thread drawn from 

 it was finer and stronger than that of common silk, and easily 

 assumed, in dyeing, all the colours which were desired. The 

 Academy of Sciences, however, to which Lebon imparted the 

 result of his experiments, considered that this branch of 

 industry presented but little expectations. Reaumur, at- 

 tempted, but to no purpose, to rear araneides on vegetable sub- 

 stances. These were by no means to their taste, — nothing 

 would do but insects, and therefore an education of this kind 

 would prove more embarrassing than useful, if attempted to be 

 executed on a great scale, as it would be necessary to rear 

 flies for the purpose of supporting the spiders. It was calcu- 

 lated that seven hundred thousand spiders would produce but 

 a pound of silk. Moreovei', these animals devour each other, 

 and the threads of their silk are so extremely fine, that, as it is 

 said, ninety of them would be necessary to equal the thickness 

 of the thread of a silk-worm, and eighteen thousand to produce 

 a thread proper for the purpose of manufacture. The thread of 

 a young spider is still finer. Notwithstanding this, these threads 

 can support, without breaking, a weight six times as heavy as 

 that of the body of these animals. Wilhelm informs us, that 

 a fabricator of stuffs at Paris also made silk stockings with the 

 cocoons of the epeira diadema. He reared eight hundred 

 individuals in one room, the ceiling of which was covered 

 with a great number of pack-threads crossing each other. 

 These animals were so tame, under his management, that 

 when he entered the room with a plate full of flies, they imme- 

 diately used to descend to take their food, and reascend after, 

 they had feasted. This they would also perform when he 

 entered without bringing them anything. 



It is well known that poor Pelisson, confined in the prison 



