The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-03 00:00:00

ANIMAL COTTON.

In an age when fine loaves of bread are manufactured from
sawdust, and superior wine from rhubarb and turnips, it is
surprising that but little advantage has been taken of the na-
tural production of an insect very common and much dreaded
in the West Indies, the capada worm, or insect fly carrier.
It is a deadly enemy to the indigo and capada plantations,
sometimes destroying whole fields in a night ; a circumstance
which gave rise to a saying once current in the western hemi-
sphere, that the planters of indigo go to bed rich, and rise in
the morning beggars. Attention has been turned more to
• the most efficient methods of destroying the animal, thgn to
turning it to some usefnl purpose. Yet this might ea,ily be
done ; for in a certain state it produces a substance which
appears to be equal, if not superior, to the finest silk or cot-
ton. It is of the most dazzling whiteness and the greatest
• purity, answering the purpose of lint in the hospitals of the
negroes, when silk and vegetable cotton serve only to inflame
wounds, by the asperities of their filaments. We abridge an
account of it from Burt's " Observations on the Curiosities
of Nature ;" a very bad title for an ingenious book.
The capada worm, or insect fly carrier, is produced, like
the silk-worm, from the eggs which its mother scatters every-
where, after she has undergone her metamorphosis into a
white butterfly. It begins to live at the end of July, and at
its birth is arrayed in a robe of the most brilliant and varie-
gated colours. When on the point of undergoing its meta-
morphosis in August, it throws off this superb livery, and
puts on another of an admirable sea-green hue. This fun-
damental colour reflects all its various shades, according to
the different undulations of the animal, and the different ac-
cidents of light ; but this new decoration announces the ap-
proach of a period when it is doomed to undergo great tor-
tures. It is immediately assailed by a swarm of ichneumon
flies, one of which inserts itself into each of the pores of its
body, not an opening being left unoccupied. 'All its struggles
to get free of its tormentors are in vain. These flies, which
are so small that they can only be studied by the microscope,
drive their stings into the skin of their victim, over the whole
extent of its back and sides. Afterwards, and all at the same
moment, they slip their eggs into the bottom of the wounds
which they have inflicted. No sooner is this operation per-
formed, than the ichneumon flies disappear, and the patient
remains for an hour in a drowsy and even motionless state,
out of which it awakens to feed with its former voracity.
It then appears much larger, and its size increases every
day. Its green colour assumes a deeper htie, and the tints
produced by the reflection of the light are more strongly
marked. About a fortnight after the worm has been encum-
bered with this factitious pregnancy, the prospect of a nume-
rous progeny begins to be apparent. By the aid of a micro-
scope, the eggs may be seen hatching in the body of the
animal ; and as they are all produced at the same instant, a
single glance reveals the capada worm covered with a living
robe of ichneumon flies. They issue from every pore, all.
the body being covered with them, only the top of the head
appearing bare. Its colour then changes to dirty white, and
the little worms assume a black appearance to the eye,
although their true colour is a deep brown. This operation
lasts about an hour, and it is followed by another, which is
not much more protracted, but still more singular.
Immediately that the ichneumon worms are hatched, with-
out quitting the spot where they separate themselves from
the eggs, they yield a liquid gum whichbecomes solid on ex-
posure to the air. At the same time, and by a simultaneous
s halZe their heiidi -rine-one— VW or tile& 38M, eMlSlElmikm%
themselves in every direction. And now they commence
a very curious operation. Each of these animalcules works
himself a small and almost imperceptible cocoon in
the shape of an egg, in which he wraps himself up. The
formation of these cocoons occupies only about two
hours, and myriads of them being crowded close together,
form a white robe, with which the capada worm appears ele-
gantly and comfortabiy -clothed ; but while . they are thus
busily arraying him in his new attire, he remains apparently
unconscious of their assiduities—he is then in a state of insect
paralysis. As soon as this covering has been completed, and
the little artists who wove it have retired to their cells, the
worm endeavours to rid himself of his officious guests, and
the robe which contains them ; but he does not succeed in the
attempt without the greatest efforts. At length he contrives
to get r;d of the encumbrance ; but instead of his former fat
and shining appearance, he presents all the decrepitude of
extreme old age. He is flaccid and dull ; his skin is wrinkled
and dirty ; and, in short, symptoms of approaching dissolu-
tion begin to show themselves. He still make 4 a desperate
attempt to knave a few leaves, but he no longer' devours them
with that voracity which indicates a Vigormis constitution.
Shortly afterwards he passes into the state of a chrysalis, and
in giVing life to thousands of eggs, he relinquishes his own.
The cotton produced in this remarkable manner may be used
without any preparatory process, as soon as the flies have-
quitted the Cocoons, with is generally-eight or ten days after
their seclusion. Indeed, there is no need for the precautions
which the silk-worm requires; the robe which covers the fly
carrier being worked everywhere so perfectly well, and in
such abundance that in less than two hours, the quantity of
100 pints has been collected. This highly interesting animal
certainly deserves some attention ; for we are not aware that
any has been given to it, except in so far as its destruction
was concerned. We know not that experiments have been
made to weave this silky substance into a wearable tissue ;
but, if the description which we have given above be correct,
(and there is no reason to doubt but it is) there seems no ob-
stacle to its being used for this purpose.
We may here, notice a singular fact, established by Dr.
Mitchell, of New York, that vegetable fungi grow on the bo-
dies of living insects. He states that these vegetable pro-
ductions are not peculiar to one insect, but are to be found
on the bodies of of the wasp, spbynx, and others ; that the
bodies of insects nourish more than one species bf vegetable
fungi ; that some of these parasitical plants begin their work
of annoyance, like the larvm of the ichneumon, in the body of
the living insect, and continue it till the animal is killed by
its destructive operations ; that these mixed associations of
vegetable with animal life are not prone to rapid putrefaction,
but remain long enough to be collected by naturalists, and be-
come the objects of scientific investigation. Dr. Mitchell
seems to be of opinion, that vegetable fungi, in attaching to
time insect class of animals, perform an important purpose in
the economy of nature, by preventing the inordinate increase
of such animals.

MR. CHARLES GREEN'S PROPOSITION TO CROSS
THE ATLANTIC IN A BALLOON.

(From the Chelmsford Journal.)
Mr. C. Green has authorised the following statement of the
grounds upon which he founds his assertion of the possibility
of making a journey in a balloon from New York, across the
Atlantic, to Europe. He states that balloons inflated with
carburetted hydrogen, or common coal gas, will retain this
fluid unimpaired in its buoyancy, and very slightly-dimi-
nished in quantity, for a great length of time; whilst on
the contrary, the pure hydrogen is so subtle a gas, and
capable of so great a degree of tenuity, as to escape through
the imperceptible pores of the silk, whether prepared in the
ordinary manner or by means of dissolved india rubber. These
facts are the result of observations made (luring 275 ascents :
on many of these occasions a-smaller balloon has been filled
at a neighbouring gas works, and has been brought a distance
of five or six miles to fill that in which he intended to ascend,
retaining, in many instances, its contents nearly the same in
quantity and quality for nearly a week. The aeronaut has
travelled two thousand nine hundred miles with the
same supply 'of gas, and could have continued its use for
three months, if necessary. As to making the voyage
from America to Europe, Mr. Green dates its possibility from
the following facts :—On all occasions in which the balloons
in which he or other aeronauts had gained an altitude beyond
the lower current of air, or land breezes, they found one
uniform current of air coming from the Atlantic, and blovi-
ing west, north-west, or west by north, whilst the under
winds, from different causes, were blowing from points com-
pletely at variance with the above : the ascent of the machine
into these upper currents is perfectly easy, and the same alti-
tude may be kept for an indefinite time with equal facility.
In 1836 Mr. Green made a proposition at Paris to cross the
Atlantic in a balloon, when he received a letter from Admiral
Sir Sydney Smith, confirming his observations as to the di-
rections of the upper currents, and in which that gallant
officer states his conviction of the safety of the proposed un-
dertaking, and his readiness to accompany the aeronaut from
New York to Europe in his balloon. It must be kept in
mind that a balloon is not borne along as is a ship by the
force of the wind, having to overcome the impediment inter-
posed by passing through a denser element like the water,
but is a body lighter than the air itself in which it floats, and
is wafted at the same speed as the air itself travels, as if it
were a part of the moving body. The wide expanse of sea
offers no impediment to the undertaking, and a machine as
large as the Nassau Balloon could easily be fitted up for the
reception of three persons, and victualled for three or four
months if necessary. The 'machine could be lowered to the
earth and ascend as often as it pleased the voyagers, by the
adoption of the same plans as those used in the voyage to
Germany. Mr. Green, having established the fact of a cur-
rent of air continually passing round the earth in the direction
of west-north-west, the capability of the machine to re-
tain the carburetted hydrogen gas for an unlimited time, and
of its power of sustaining itself for weeks—under these cir-
cumstances, and trusting to the faith he has always endea-
voured to keep with the public as a claim to their confidence,
on this occasion, offers to take upon himself to traverse the
Atlantic from New York to England in a balloon to be con-
structed for that purpose, and that he will make the experi-
ment without any reward for his exertions.

Our amiable contemporary the Globe, at the close of a very
elaborate deacription of the weather, yesterday, remarks that
the streets were left "in a sloppy, soapy condition." When
we remember that the London Police Bill was concocted by
Mr. Hawes, we are not surprised to find that the streets are
soapy ; only we think it unkind in the Globe to mention the
fact. But the whigs can never omit thelayportunity of sneer-
in at riti494l Encode,--, fa

TIDE TABLE.
Days, Mrn. Ern. Height.
H. M. H. M. Y. I.
Tuesday 3 9 27 9 47 13 9
Wednes. 4 10 7 10 25 14 5 [l-48 even
Thursday 5 10 44 10 59 15 1 Sat. in con. with Sun.
Friday .. 6 II 17 11 34 15 4 New Moon 2-47 morn.
Saturda) 7 11 25 0 0 15 6
Sunday 8 0 7 025 15 8 2nd Sunday in Advent.
Monday 9 042 1 0 15 5