the Greeks call Ser, but which they call by some other name. Its size is twice that of the largest beetle. In other respects it resembles the spiders, which weave under the trees. It has also the same number of feet as the spider, namely, eight[1]. In order to breed these creatures, the Seres have houses adapted both for summer and winter. The produce of the animal is a fine thread twisted about its legs. The Seres feed it four years on "panicum." In the fifth year they give it green reed, of which it is so fond as to eat of it until it bursts, and after this the greatest part of the thread is found within its body[2].
The most interesting circumstance, mentioned by Pausanias,
is the breeding of the silk-worms within doors in houses adapted
both for summer and winter. There seems no reason to
doubt the truth of this fact; and, if admitted, it proves, that
their country, the Serica of the ancients, lay so far North, or
was so elevated, as to have a great difference of temperature in
summer and in winter. It is remarkable, that in China the
worms are now reared in small houses, and this practice has
long prevailed in that country[3].
GALEN
recommends silk thread for tying blood-vessels in surgical operations, observing that the opulent women in many parts of the Roman empire possessed such thread, especially in the great cities[4]. He also mentions cloths of silk and gold in his treatise, c. 9. (Hippocratis et Galeni Opp. ed. Chartier, tom. vi. p. 533.):
"Of this kind are the shawls interwoven with gold, the materials of which are
brought from afar, and which are called Seric or silk."
CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS,
dissuading the Christian convert from luxury in dress, thus speaks:
[Greek: Ei de symperipheresthai chrê, oligon endoteon autais malakôterois chrêsthai tois hyphasmasin;]
- ↑ This does not apply to the silk-worm, which has sixteen legs, in pairs: six proper legs before, and ten holders behind. (See Figure 1, Plate iii.)
- ↑ L. vi. 26. p. 125. ed. Siebel.
- ↑ Barrow's Travels in China, p. 437, &c. Résumé des Traités Chinois, &c. traduit par Julien, p. 70-72. 77-80. The practice is here shown to have prevailed as early as the fifth century B. C.
- ↑ Methodus Medendi, l. xiii. c. 22.
