Note 184 — Chapter X · FIBRES OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA.

This remark of M. Réaumur confirms the observations of M. H. Straus, quoted in Chapter VII. that the thread of the silk-worm is not produced by a simple emission of liquid matter through the orifices of the spinner, or that it acquires solidity at once from the drying influence of the air. Indeed, silk cannot be produced in this manner, but is secreted in the form of silk in silk vessels, and the spinning apparatus, so called, only unwinds it. Mr. Straus’s observations on this head admit of no argument. The discovery reduces all that has been heretofore written upon the subject to the character of old lumber.