On the raw materials from the animal kingdom, displayed in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations / by Richard Owen.

  • Owen, Richard, Sir, 1804-1892.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the raw materials from the animal kingdom, displayed in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations / by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ment of the silkworm has for a long period exercised the care and pains o many able silkworm-breeders, and of late years has been the object o systematic advancement by the Central Society of Sericicultnre of France Much skill is exercised—I wish I could add without cruelty—in the ar of killing the pupa and extracting it from the cocoon, and in preparing tin latter for unwinding the delicate thread; heat being the agent of destrucl tion in most of the processes, as it seems to have been in the remotes1!'' historic times in China. The method there employed, according to the oh French missionaries in China, is as follows :—“The extremities of the cocooi are first cut off with a pair of scissors ; they are then put in a canvass ba< ■ and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling lye, which dissolves the gum. When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle, are pressec to expel the lye, and are left till the next morning to dry. Whilst they art still moist the chrysalis is extracted from each cocoon, which is then turnec inside out to make a sort of cowl. They are then easily wound into thread.” An accomplished author, who has celebrated the Great Exhibitioi in a work full of apt and striking allusions, beautifully apostrophizes the “ wondrous worm, self-shrouded in thy silken tomb ! Anon to emerge ir brighter form, on higher life intent; but that stern man thy mystic transformation intercepts, with fatal fires, consuming tenant for the sepulchre.”* The results of all the most approved modes of rearing the silkworm and preparing the cocoons were exhibited, and might be studied with] advantage, in the Crystal Palace. The Bombijx viori, having been bred and reared under the special care and management of man during a long succession of ages, may he regarded as a domesticated species of insect; and it^has become the subject, as in the higher domesticated races, of varieties, of which those called “ Sina,” “ Syrie,” and “Novi,” in France, are examples. The “ Sina ” variety of the silkworm is known and esteemed for the pure whiteness oi its silk, the thread of which is fine, but weak, and not very lustrous. The “ Syrie ” variety is of large size, produces a cocoon.- abundant in silk, but the thread is rather coarse, and inclines to a greenish tint. The “Novi race is small, hut the cocoons are firm and well made,’ and the silk has a yellowish tint. The specimens of cocoons and raw silk exhibited in the French depart- ment were numerous, and the degrees of excellence hardly to be discrimi- nated in the finest examples selected for the award of the prize medal. With regard to the superior quality of these raw silks and cocoons, the Jury, by their recommendation of the award of the Council medal to the “ Central Society of Sericicultnre of France,” desired to testify their admi- ration of the specimens exhibited by many members of that Society, and their appreciation ol the important influence which it has exercised in the improvement ol this beautiful and valuable product of the animal kingdom. The Jury, however, justly gave the honour of their first notice to the specimens shown under No. 782, by Major Count de Bronno Bronski, exhibitor of unbleached silk and silk cocoons from the Chateau de * “ The Lily and the Bee,” by Samuel Warren, F.R.S., p. 92.