the greater number had strength to spin cocoons
Some survived to the moth state, and laid their
eggs; but the eggs were addled or produced
infected caterpillars—for the disease was
hereditary—and they died before spinning. In a
few months all our stock was dead. We
procured eggs from uninfected schools, but these
caught the disease, and died. Soon, there were no
eggs or worms to be had, except from London
fanciers; and even these died off. So at last
we gave up our silk manufactory in despair.

This is exactly what is now happening in all the
silk-producing regions of the world. The disease
first appeared, or at least was first publicly
noticed, in 1842, in Herault and Poictiers.
Like other epidemics, it was erratic and
irregular in its course. It utterly destroyed the
broods of some districts, then skipped over
others in the immediate neighbourhood, to break
out with greater virulence beyond them. Often
the strong and vigorous caterpillars were slain,
while the unhealthy and the weaklings were
spared. Whole establishments perished
suddenly, without apparent cause. The pebrine
germs seemed to be carried by air or wind.
In 1858 the disease had spread so fearfully,
and produced so much misery and distress,
that the French Government commissioned
M. Quatrefages to ascertain its extent, and,
if possible, to discover a remedy. He
could not find a single caterpillar in all the
districts he examined, free from the
disease. At first, like the boys at Dolehurst,
the people whose livelihood depended on the
produce of silk, sent to uninfected districts for
eggs, and struggled on. Soon, all France
became infected. Then, like a cloud, the
disease fell on Lombardy, Calabria, and the
rest of Italy; then on the whole of Spain,
and the breeding districts of Germany.
Supplies were sought from Turkey, Syria, and
parts of Asia Minor; but the plague spot
appeared in those regions too. In 1858 it
had spread as far as the Caspian Sea, and into
the heart of Persia. Next year, it had passed
up and over the great Caucasian range. India
and China—the native country of the silkworm
—are now mourning over the rapid decline of a
profitable industry. Such poverty and misery
as followed the track of the oidium in wine-
producing countries, or a deficiency of cotton in the
manufacturing districts, of England, attend the
course of the pebrine. The silk-spinners, silk-
weavers, and ribbon-makers of England fear the
collapse of a beautiful manufacture and the
ruin of their trade, unless the spread of the
infection can be prevented or obviated by
the introduction of new silk-producing moths.
The fear is not altogether groundless. In this
case demand does not regulate supply; supply
regulates the consumption. The consumption
of raw and thrown silk in Great Britain has
diminished from ten million twenty-one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-six pounds
in 1858, to five million two hundred and
seventy-three thousand seven hundred and
sixty-seven pounds in 1866. You can at once
detect the pebrine invasion of a silk country by
the decrease in its production. Thus, in 1857,
China sent to England nine million pounds of
silk; but the plague fell virulently on China in
1864, and in one year the quantity obtained
by us from that country fell to three million
pounds. All articles manufactured of silk have
increased rather more than one-third in price,
and the manufacturer now pays for raw Chinese
Isatlee thirty-two shillings and sixpence,
instead of nineteen shillings and sixpence; for
Italian white Novi, forty-six shillings, instead
of thirty shillings. Of all the silk-bearing
countries in the world, Japan and Australia
alone are now free. Should these become
infected, silk garments may some day be
reserved for princes.

Since the year 1855 a French entomologist,
M. Guerin-Meneville, liberally encouraged by
the Emperor of the French and the
Acclimatisation Society of France, has specially
endeavoured to introduce different species of silk-
producing moths which do not appear to be
susceptible to the disease. At the Paris
Exhibition, he displayed a considerable quantity of
silk produced by other species than the
mulberry silkworm. The chief typical forms
introduced by him are two: the Tusseh moth, with
three subordinate species: and the Arrinda or
Ailanthus moth, with two species. The Tusseh
moth follows the vast range of the Himalayas
from the most western limits of Bengal, through
northern India and northern China, into Japan,
where its best species is known as the yama-
mai; the Ailanthus, also a native of India, is
found indigenated in Japan. The two types
differ essentially from each other in size of the
body, colouring of the wings, and nature of the
cocoons. The full-grown caterpillar of the
yama-mai resembles a number of fruit berries
ranged side by side. I do not fancy it will
ever become a favourite with school-boys.
The caterpillar of the Ailanthus resembles that
of the ordinary silkworm (Bombyx mori). The
cocoon of the yama-mai is oval and closed all
round, and constructed like that of the
mulberry silkworm. The silk can be as easily, or
nearly as easily, rolled off. The cocoon of the
Ailanthus is open at each end, is wrapped up
in a second silk covering open in front, and the
silk is erratically laid upon it at the caprice or
will of the insect.

The French moth requires a hot climate, and
therefore cannot, for commercial purposes, be
largely introduced into Europe. In India it is
already an article of commerce, and can even
now be obtained in considerable quantities from
thence. The silk is hard and durable, and,
woven into a kind of cloth called French
doolhies, is worn by the Brahmins and other
sects of Hindoos. It is said to be firm, brilliant,
and always clean looking. The silk of the
Ailanthus is soft, and either white or yellowish.
It is spun or carded as cotton, and possesses such
extraordinary durability that a single garment
manufactured of it, outlasts the wearer's lifetime.
The Ailanthus moth, and two species of the