Recreations in Natural History. 353 



nature's works. We do not know whether the old-fashioned 

 race of silkworm doctors endeavoured to cure their wriggling 

 patients by cathartics and depletion ; but it is interesting to 

 find that in the case just mentioned the system which used to 

 be named antiphlogistic is dispensed with, and alcoholic stimu- 

 lants exhibited, in conformity with the practice of our best 

 hospital doctors and the interesting theory of Professor 

 Lionel Beale, who would tell us that when the unfortunate silk- 

 worm was being reduced to a black fetid liquid through the 

 agency of disease, a little alcohol would moderate the excessive 

 action of the growing material, and restore the balance which 

 health requires. 



Dr. Phipson mentions the great success attained by M. 

 Andre Jean, the director of a large establishment at Neuilly, 

 who has succeeded in introducing a splendid and very large 

 race of silkworms, by breeding exclusively from well-selected 

 specimens. 



In addition to the ordinary silkworm the French are occu- 

 pied in naturalizing other species, especially a fine one from 

 the Himalayas, which lives upon the oak. The Tussah silk is 

 coarser than the silk commonly known in this country, and 

 the worms producing it may probably be reared in European 

 countries to an extent sufficient to exercise an important in- 

 fluence on the ordinary clothing of the people. Dr. Phipson 

 states that " garments of Tussah silk will wear, when in con- 

 stant use, for ten or twelve years '" and M. Guerin de Menne- 

 ville has obtained from cocoons of his own rearing " silk so 

 strong, that a single fibre will support without breaking a 

 weight of 198 grains." 



A recent number of the Intellectual Observes contained 

 an account of the employment of spiders to make carpets, and 

 other European insects have been used for their spinning 

 powers. Dr. Phipson has the following remarks upon this 

 subject, and we are enabled to make the quotation more inte- 

 resting by presenting our readers with one of the numerous 

 excellent engravings with which his book is illustrated : — 



" It is a doubtful question whether the breeding of any of 

 the European moths will ever become a source of advantage. 

 Experiments have already been made on certain varieties of 

 clothes moths (Tinea). M. Habenstreet, of Munich, experi- 

 mented some years ago upon a species called Tinea 'punctata, 

 or Tinea padilla (Fig. 2), closely allied to T. 

 Evonomella. The larvse of the former were 

 made to spin upon a paper model, suspended 

 from the ceiling of the room. To this model 

 any form or dimensions could be given at Fig. 2. Tinea padilla 

 will, the motions of the larvas being regu- (Silk-epinniDg gnat). 



