DISEASE OF THE SILK 'WORM. 



63 



So direful in Prance were the ravages of this disease that two 

 of the most advanced naturalists in France, Quatrefages and 

 Pasteur, were commissioned by the French government to inves- 

 tigate the disease. Pasteur found that the infected eggs differed 

 in appearance from the sound ones, and could thus be sorted 

 out by aid of the microscope and destroyed. Thus these inves- 

 tigations, carried on year after year, and seeming to the igno- 

 rant to tend to no practical end, resulted in saving to France 

 her silk culture. During the past year (1871) so successful has 

 his method proved that a French scientific journal expresses the 

 hope of the complete reestablishment and prosperity of this 

 great industry. A single person who obtained in 1871 in his 

 nurseries 30,000 ounces of eggs, hopes the next year to obtain 

 100,000 ounces, from which he expects to realize about one mil- 

 lion dollars. 



The Potato Caterpillar. 



