CHAPTER VII. 
INSTRUMENTS OF THE INSECT : AND ITS 
CHEMICAL ENERGIES, 
AS IN THE COCHINEAL AND THE CANTHARIDES. 
Have I insisted too much upon my theme ? No; 
I have reached its very depths, its most important 
details. 
Silk is not a particular, but a general view or 
aspect of it, for nearly every insect produces silk. 
Hitherto we have dealt with only one 
kind of silk,—that of the bombyx, and indeed that of a species of 
bombyx which is not very fertile. Let us hope that the meritorious 
Society of Acclimatization will introduce here the Chinese bombyx 
( Attacus ), which lives on the dwarf oak, whose strong and cheap 
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