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HOUGH NOTES ON CANADIAN SATURNINE. 



[1854. 



"Falling-stars," says Plutarch, in his life of Lysander, "are not 

 emanations or detached parts of the elementary fire, that go out 

 the moment they are. kindled, nor yet a quantity of air bursting 

 wit from some compression, and taking tiro in the upper regions; 

 but they are really heavenly bodies, which, from some relaxation 

 of the rapidity of their motion, or by some irregular concussion, 

 are loosened, and fall." And Diogenes, of Apollonia, says: 

 "Invisible (dark) masses of stone move with the visible stars, 

 and remain, on that account, unknown. The former sometimes 

 fall upon the earth, and are extinguished, as happened with the 

 stony star which fell near Aegos Potamos." 



The utilitarian spirit of the present age is apt to enquire after 

 the practical uses to be attained by the observation of these 

 celestial phenomena. On this point but little can be said. So 

 far as I have been able to learn, the geographical determination 

 of degrees of longitude is the only practical purpose which well- 

 observed falls of shooting-stars have yet been made to subserve. 

 Beuzeuberg published a paper on this subject in 1802, but Dr. 

 Maskelyne had pointed to this application of the phenomena some 

 twenty years previously. In a letter dated Greenwich, Nov. 6, 

 1783, he writes: "If the exact time could be had at different 

 places, the absolute velocity of the meteor, the velocity of the 

 sound propagated to us from the higher regions of the atmo- 

 sphere, and the longitude of places might be determined." (On 

 this point, see Silliman's Journal for Oct., 1840.) But apart 

 from this view of the matter, what deep interest attaches to 

 meteoric phenomena, if we admit the connection that is now 

 believed to exist between them and other planetary systems! 

 "He who is penetrated with a sense of this mysterious connec- 

 tion (to adopt the fine sentiments of Humboldt), and whose mind 

 is open to deep impressions of Nature, will feel himself moved by 

 the deepest and most solemn unction at the sight of every star 

 that shoots across the vault of heaven, no less than at the glorious 

 spectacle of meteoric swarms in the November phenomenon, or 

 on St. Lawrence's Day. Here motion is suddenly revealed in 

 the midst of nocturnal rest. The still radiance of the vault of 

 heaven is for a moment animated with life and movement In 

 the mild radiance left on the track of the shooting-star, imagina- 

 tion pictures the lengthened path of the meteor through the vault 

 of heaven, while, everywhere around, the luminous asteroids pro- 

 claim the existence of one common material universe. Accus- 

 tomed to gain our knowledge of what is not telluric solely through 

 measurement, calculations, and the deductions of reason, we expe- 

 rience a sentiment of astonishment at finding that we may ex- 

 amine, weigh, and analyze bodies that appertain to the outer world. 

 This awakens, by the power of the imagination, a meditative, 

 spiritual train of thought, where the untutored mind perceives only 

 scintillations of light in the firmament, and sees in the blackened 

 stone that falls from the exploded cloud nothing beyond the rough 

 product of a powerful natural force." 



A lew Rougli Notes on some of the Canadian Satiimire, and 



Suggestions on tlie Possibility of nsing their SiLk 



for Textile Purposes* 



Read before the Canadian Institute, March lllh, by Tlwmas Cottle, M.D. 

 of Woodstock. 



To the student of Nature, the delight which his investigations 

 of the different kingdoms create is very much enhanced if, during 

 his researches, he can discover among the natural productions of 

 the country he inhabits any which may be usefully employed in 

 adding to the necessaries or luxuries of life. 



In the following trifling sketch, it is the wish to call attention 

 to a genus of Lepidopterous insects whose products may possibly 

 be as usefully employed as some of the coarser varieties of silk 

 now used in India, and which, being indigenous, would not be 

 liable to the failure that occurred some years ago in the attempt 

 to introduce the true silk worm into the neighbouring States of 

 the Union. Should this expectation not be realized when tested 

 by experiment, yet, if the hint now given should induce others 

 to turn their attention to the as yet comparatively unexplored 

 productions of this Province, they will not have been written in 

 vain. 



To the family Bombycidre belong those moths the enveloping 

 tissues of whose cocoons have been used for textile purposes. 

 The member of this family the products of whose labour have 

 been most used by man, and to whose silk it is generally thought 

 we are entirely dependant for our silken fabrics, is the well-known 

 silk-worm par excellence (Bombyx mori), with which all are too 

 cognisant to require further mention ; but in India the web of 

 other insects of this family are so employed. On this subject, 

 Ouvier, or rather Latreille, in the Regne Animal, writing of the 

 genus Saturnia, says: "They have employed from time imme- 

 morial in Bengal two other species of the same division, the 

 Bombyx Mylitta, of Fabricius, and the Phalaena Cynthia, of 

 Drury, and I am convinced, after the communication made me 

 by M. Huzard of a Chinese manuscript on this subject, that the 

 caterpillars of these Bombyces were the wild silk-worms of China, 

 and I think that a part of the silks which the ancients procured 

 by their maritime commerce with the Indies was produced from 

 the silk of these worms." Both the insects above mentioned 

 belong to the genus Saturnia as now constituted. . Some of the 

 Canadian species are very fine specimens of the genus, and spin 

 large cocoons; and is it unreasonable to imagine that one or 

 other of the species might be made as available for manufactu- 

 ring purposes as their Indian congeners? An obstacle to be 

 overcome is the difficulty of dissolving the animal cements with 

 which the caterpillar glues together the threads; but as the 

 perfect insect has the power of dissolving this glue when about 

 to escape from its cocoon (for it has no jaws to tear open the 

 walls of its prison), could not the chemist, by analyzing this fluid 

 there secreted, provide us with an efficient solvent? The natives 

 of India for one species use a lye made of the ashes of the plan- 

 tain. 



The first is Saturnia Polyphemus, one of the princes of the 

 Canadian Lepidoptera : This fine insect expands five inches, is 

 of a yellowish brown ; both wings with a hyaline spot. The 

 anterior wing is marked with two curved lines near the base, a 

 waved line on the border, and a dark spot on the apex. The 

 hyaline spot is encircled by a yellow margin. On the posterior 

 wing the hyaline spot is larger, with a bluish grey iris, shading 

 into black, and the marginal band is darker. The colours of the 

 male are the same as those of the female, but more decided. The 

 caterpillar is described by Gosse "as of a most brilliant light 

 green, nearly transparent, each segment of the body rising into 

 two roundish humps, each ending in a little bright yellow tubercle, 

 bearing two or three short hairs; two rows of similar tubercles 

 run down each side, which are joined by a diagonal yellow line 

 on each segment, just behind which are the spiracles, which are 

 scarlet. The head and legs are light brown, the last segment 

 terminated by a line of purplish brown. It is rather inactive, 

 and slow of motion. Its length, when crawling, is two inches 

 and a half, and its diameter about half an inch." He gives it as 

 feeding on the choke cherry (Prunus Serotina), and probably 

 any species of Prunus will serve it for nourishment. The cocoon 



