


242 THE INSECT WORLD. 
cocoons into the hot water, and moves them about in it, to soften 
the gummy substance which sticks the silken threads of the 
cocoon together. Then she beats them, with a light hand, with a 
small birch-broom. The threads of the cocoons get caught in the 
extremities of the twigs of which the little broom is made, and the 
workwoman seizes with her fingers the bundle of threads, and 
shakes them about till she perceives that they are all single, and 
in a fit state to be joined together. 
Let us suppose that it is wished now to make up a drin or 
staple by uniting together the ends of five cocoons. She chooses 
five ends in the mass, makes of these a bundle, and introduces it 
into the hole of a jiliere. She makes two staples (4r7ns) at once, 
one on her right, the other on her left hand. She then brings 
them together, she crosses them, rolls them, and twists them, 
the one on the other, many times ; after which, she separates 
them from above and keeps them well apart, making each of 
them pass into a hook at a distance, from which they are going 
to twist round into a hank, separately, on a wheel. The two 
threads thus twisted are drawn close together, compressed, and 
become one, getting round by rolling on each other, and being kept 
in continual motion, drawn out as they are by the rapid motion of 
the wheel. 
The difficulty which the emptying the cocoon of its silk thread 
presents, makes us understand what difhculties those manufacturers 
must have met with who have lately attempted to extract from 
the stalks of mulberry leaves a sort of silk. We will enter 
into no details of the attempts which have been made to accom- 
plish this object in our time, attempts which have, however, 
been crowned with no success whatever. We will confine our- 
selves to reminding the reader that these attempts are far from 
being of recent origination, since they date back to as far as 
Olivier de Serres, the father of French sericiculture. 
In a little work published by Olivier de Serres, in 1603, under 
the title of Cuezllette de la Sove, “The Gathering of Silk,” we find 
a memoir entitled: La second richesse du Mirier qui se trouve en 
son escorce, pour en faire des toiles de toute sorte, mon moins 
utile que la soie provenant dicelui, “The second wealth of the 
mulberry tree which is found in its bark, how to make of it cloth 



