François Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetFrançois Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire
French scientist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Montpellier, Occitania, France
About François Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire
- François Xavier Bon de Saint Hilaire (1678–1761), president of the Court of Auditors of Montpellier, demonstrated in 1709 that he could make fabric from spider silk.
- Many cocoons were boiled, washed and dried and the thread was collected with fine combs.
- Some socks and gloves were produced.
- He also claimed to have manufactured medicines curing apoplexy, lethargy and coma from spiders.
- His report, published in 1710, was republished several times and was translated into several languages including Chinese. The French scientist also made one of the first ventures into the mass-cultivation of spider silk, keeping the creatures in crates of fifty and one-hundred, only to find, upon returning after a considerable duration, that the spiders had thinned themselves out to a mere few remaining members. He was named to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1750.
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