FIBRES OR SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE PINNA.
The Pinna--Description of--Delicacy of its threads--Réaumur’s
observations--Mode of forming the filament or thread--Power of
continually producing new threads--Experiments to ascertain
this fact--The Pinna and its Cancer Friend--Nature of their
alliance--Beautiful phenomenon--Aristotle and Pliny’s account--The
Greek poet Oppianus’s lines on the Pinna, and its Cancer friend--Manner
of procuring the Pinna--Poli’s description--Specimens of the
Pinna in the British Museum--Pearls found in the Pinna--Pliny and
Athenæus’s account--Manner of preparing the fibres of the Pinna for
weaving--Scarceness of this material--No proof that the ancients were
acquainted with the art of knitting--Tertullian the first ancient
writer who makes mention of the manufacture of cloth from the fibres
of the Pinna--Procopius mentions a chlamys made of the fibres of
the Pinna, and a silken tunic adorned with sprigs or feathers of
gold--Boots of red leather worn only by Emperors--Golden fleece of the
Pinna--St. Basil’s account--Fibres of the Pinna not manufactured into
cloth at Tarentum in ancient times, but in India--Diving for the Pinna
at Colchi--Arrian’s account 174