from that traffic. It is true, that about the year 1599, Andreas Libarius. a learned Phyfician and Philofopher, made various experiments on the fubject, at Rothenburg on the Tauber. But his efforts were attended with but little fuccefs till feveral Princes and men of rank interfered in the bufinefs. John Philip, Elector of Mentz, was the firft, if I am not mistaken, who laid the affair to heart. This Prince caufed many mulberries to be planted, and filk worms to be reared at Hockheim and at Wurtzburg in Franconia. He gave annual premiums to the children of fuch peafants as had collected the greatest quantities of filk. Frederick, Duke of Wurtemberg Neustadt made a fimilar eftablishment at his refidence. Prince Charles of Lichtenftein imitated his example: He planted mulberries at Feldfberg, where fo many filk worms were reared as yielded a confiderable yearly profit. Daniel Kraft, an inquifitive and diligent man, made himfelt famous for his fuccefs in managing thofe infects; and it is to him that the city of Drefden owes its filk manufacture. But no perfon in Germany was fo earnest in the bufinefs as the Court of Berlin. Frederick I. planted many mulberry trees at PotJam, Kopenick, Spandau, and other places, where great quanti ties of filk worms were reared and a manufacture established, the direction of which was at firft entrufted to certain individuals but afterwards to the Academy of Sciences at Berlin. Frederick William followed the footsteps of his father with an ardour and zeal truly laudable. For this purpoft he ordered large plantations of muberries, and encouraged his fubjects by rewards to inak them. He likewife eftablifhed a manufacture of ribbands at Charlottenburg, for the maintenance of which certain merchants advanced confiderabie fums.

The inhabitants of China likewife trade in filks;

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of theirs, they even make paper, but it is fo fine and thin, that it bears the ink only on one fide.

The traffic in bees and in the wax and honey which they make is very confiderable. It is well known that bees are fold in hives. If no accident happens to them, they multiply fo faft that each hive generally produces two fwarms a year. These are two coloni fent forth to people two new hives. Suppofe a man fhould purchase these two fwarins at two florins for the firit, and one florin for the fecond, the following year, if things fucceeded well, each hive would give him two fwarms which might be fold for double of what he originally gave, while he ftill preferved the first two hives. If one fhould calculate how many fwarms would be produced from the two original hives in a few years, one would fee what profit may arife from thefe little animals. I pafs over in filence the honey and wax which the hives would afford at the fame time, though likewife very profitable.

In the countries where locufts are eaten, they are carried regularly to market, and fold as birds are with us.

There are infects likewife which furnish the moft beautiful colours. Such is the Cochineal (Cocrus Cacti) which Dyers ufe for dying red. The Cochineal is a small worm which Mr Edward Tyfon thinks is a fpecies of Scarabæus. It is of the fize of a lentil, and fomething like a bug in fhape. Internally it is of a fearlet red colour; it paffes though its transformations very flowly. It abounds in New Spain, where it is found on every tree. The Indians gather them and put them under a fort of fig of that country, the fruit of which is full of a red coloured juice. This plant is called Kumbeba, or Tuna, and in Latin is known under the name of the O

puntia fpinofa fructu fanguineo, (Ca&us Opuntia.) Thefe worms fuck the fine red fruit of this tree, and acquire its colour. When thefe infects have attained their natural fize, the Indians make a fmoke to windward of the tree, and fpread a linen cloth below it covered with quick-lime. When the animals are ftupified with imoke, the tree is fhaken to make them fall on the quick lime which inftantly kills them. They are then dried in the Sun and kept for fale.

There is found both in Poland and Germany an infect (Coccus Polonicus) which yields a very fine carmine colour. This infect attaches itfelf to the plant called in Latin, Polygonum minus cocciferum, (Scleranthus perennis.) There hang from its roots little. veficles, red internally, called by the vulgar St John's blood. When the root and veficles of this plant are exposed to the Sun, there come out little flies which may be confidered as belonging to the genus of ichneumon. They have white wings, and at the hinder part they have two beards of the fame colour clolely joined together. All the reft of the body of the infect refembles carmine, and accordingly it is from this animal we procure it.

It is to an infect likewife that we are indebted for the fineft crimfon colour. This little animal (Coccus ilicis) is found in fmall round veficles, of the size of a pea, which grow on the leaves of the Ilex aculeata cocci glandifera (Quercus Ilex.) It is a fpecies of very hard cak, which the celebrated Mr Rohr calls the fcarlet oak. The veficles are gathered before they open, and to prevent the little flies from getting away, thefe veficles are fprinkled with vinegar. Thefe trees are found chiefly in Spain; but they are faid to grow likewife in England and in different parts of Germany; as in

the

the Province of Bareith in Silefia and in the forefts of Saxony. It would be worth while to investigate the matter, and to examine at the fame time the feafon in which thefe veffels are filled with flies. A greater number of these trees might then be cultivated, the infects gathered, and we might find at home, at little expence, what we fend fo far, and pay fo high to obtain. The peafant and his mafter would then be equally benefited, the one by felling the infects he had gathered, the other by the tax which might be laid on the traffic.

Befides the two kinds of plants, on which thefe infects are found, diligent Naturalifts have difcovered others, with red veffels at their roots. Undoubtedly thefe would likewife produce a red colour, like the others. It needs only to be tried by experiment, whether their cultivation would be worth the while.

I add, in order to finish this article, that there is a fort of Bees in the Indies, confidered by fome as winged ants, which are likewife of great ufe in dying. They make a fort of wax, called gum lac, which is ufed in dying red.

The wax made by bees has feveral ufes, which ought not to be paffed over in filence. The antients wrote upon it. They made little plates of wood, like the leaves of our pocket-books, with a raised border all round, to prevent the wax from running off

Melted wax was then fpread on these plates, and made smooth, fo that they wrote upon it with a point, nearly in the fame manner as our engravers write on copper. A few years ago I.faw an antiqui ty of this kind, in the town-house of Arnad. Thefe tablets are no longer in ufe, both becaufe what was written could be cafily effaced and because paper is fo much more fit for the purpofe. I fhall fay nothing

nothing of the ufe formerly made of wax, in defending dead bodies from putrefaction, but confine myfelf to the ufes it ferves in the prefent times. It is mixed with pitch, in order to ftop up chinks and crevices, through which water gets into cafks. It is likewife ufed to prevent air and rain from getting into the wounds of trees, whether made for engrafting, or accidentally. It was formerly ufed in fealing letters, and other things of that nature, and various colours were given to it. Now a days, when we are acquainted with a better fort of wax, common people no longer ufe it; but magiftrates and perfons in power fill imprefs their feals upon it, and attach them to public inftruments and papers of importance. Wax was likewife antiently ufed in painting; any colour was given it at pleature; portraits were made of it, which were afterwards hardened by means of fire, many works in relief were likewife fabricated of wax, and even the whole hunan figure has been for med of it. But as that was expenfive, it was only perfons of distinction who could procure them. A mong the Romans, it was thofe perfons only who had exercised the curule offices who had the Right of Statues. Thefe the Poes call ceræ, because they were of wax, In the year 1714, I faw a Berlin, a magnificent specimen of this in the king's cabinet. It was the portrait of his majefty, Frederic king of Pruffia. The workmanship was fo exquifite, and the features fo ftriking, that at firit fight one could not help faying, there is the king." The great likewife ufe candles made of wax.

It is well known, that there are feveral animals which, like living barometers, predi&t changes of the feafons. Infects have the fame faculty. At the approach of winter they conceal themfelves, and when the grafshoppers appear, they announce to us the fummer. We may expect a form or heavy rain,

when