1882.J 
Silks and Silkworms. 
81 
aesthetic taste leading to the increased chances of viability 
in the offspring of persons who have such taste, to the 
multiplication of descendants. But an allusion only to 
some of them will perhaps be sufficient to maintain our 
case. Thus there is evidently a connexion between the 
beauty of an unbroken row of sound white teeth and the 
use for which they have been required. If our race had 
always fed themselves by a process of suCtion instead of by 
biting there would have been no beauty seen by us in the 
finest row of teeth — an altogether different feature being 
the delight of our eyes. 
The beauty of a good head of hair is connected with the 
protection it affords. It is true that the head may be 
covered by some artificial head-dress ; but an irremovable 
covering would be a greater security against strokes of the 
sun, which may be suddenly fatal without any preliminary 
warning discomfort, as well as against the atmospheric 
changes so apt to produce colds. The human back has 
indeed been deprived of its hirsute covering, but the dangers 
arising from this loss may have been of less consideration 
than the advantages thereby gained. The loss was really a 
gain, as the artificial protection would more than make good 
the natural one, since it could be more readily cleared of 
Epizoa, and could be shifted when too heavy for the season 
or sodden with wet. 
(To be continued.) 
V. SILKS AND SILKWORMS.* 
By J. W. Slater. 
S OR ages the silk of commerce has been furnished by 
one silkworm, the larva of Botnbyx mori. Such is at 
least the general opinion, though in strictness it must 
be admitted that five other species of Bombyx , all, like the 
first mentioned, feeding upon the mulberry, exist in a state 
* Handbook of the Collection illustrative of the Wild Silks of India in the 
Indian Se&ion of the South Kensington Museum. By Thomas Wardle. 
London : Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. 
