CH. v.] HISTORY OF SILK, ETC. 85 



t?ieir kind. Various accounts are given as to the 

 immber of eggs which the female lays, some stating 

 250, while others mention 400 to 500 as the usual 

 number. 



CHAPTER V. 



HISTORY OF SILK, &C. 



History of its Fabricntion — Several Kinds of Worms reared tn 

 India and America — The Silk Company — Culture of the Mul- 

 berry tree — Laboratory — Air — Fteat — Temperature — Light — Of 

 the Kinds of Silkworm — K'Xgs — Hatching — Space — Food—^ 

 Weight and Length of the full-grown Worm. 



It is allowed by all, that the silkworm and the 

 mulberry-tree are indigenous ro China, where the 

 former is termed Se. According to the Chinese 

 historians, one of their emperors ordered his wife 

 to endeavour to rear the silkworm, for the purpose 

 of making- its industry available to man. After 

 many fruitless attempts, she at last completely suc- 

 ceeded, and was enabled to fabricate from the raw 

 threads stuffs which she afterward embroidered 

 with images of flowers and birds. This invention^ 

 which the Chinese state as taking place 2,698 years 

 before the Christian era, raised the emperess to the 

 rank of a divinity, under the title of Spirit of the silk- 

 worm and of the mulberry-tree. From China the 

 culture of the silkworm passed very slowly into 

 Persia and India, and thence, though after the lapse 

 of several centuries, into Europe. It is certain that 

 prior to the time of Alexander the Great, silk was 

 unknown in Greece ; and it is probable that when 

 that' conqueror adopted the flowing robes of the 

 Medes and Persians, he first became acquainted 

 with silk. This commodity was unknown in the 

 early times of the Roman republic ; the victories of 

 Vol. II.— H 



