LEPIDOPTERA. 219 



3n the death of that king. It received a fresh impulse under Colbert, 

 :he great minister, who succeeded in creating the spirit of commerce 

 md trade in France. New manufactories were established, and 

 Dlantations of mulberry trees formed in many of the provinces. All 

 :his progress was suddenly brought to a standstill by the iniquitous 

 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which deprived France of her 

 eading commercial men. Driven from their own country, the 

 Protestant families of the Cevennes established abroad silk manufac- 

 tories, the fabrics of which rivalled those of French production. 



In the eighteenth century the intendants of the provinces tried, 

 but with very slight success, to give a fresh impetus to sericulture 

 n France. The Abbe Boissier de Sauvages pubhshed, about 1760, 

 >ome works, which prove him to have been a patient observer, an 

 iccurate reasoner, and a clever rearer of silkworms. Boissier de 

 Sauvages is the father of modern silk-culture. During the first 

 Revolution, men's minds were occupied with graver subjects than the 

 ;ultivation of the mulberry tree. But, on the return of peace, they got 

 :o work again on all sides. In 1808, the minister Chaptal estimated 

 :he weight of the cocoon harvest at between five or six thousand 

 dlogrammes ; whilst the invention of the Jacquard loom gave an 

 mmense impulse to the weaving of silk stuffs. Amongst those who 

 ntroduced and benefited the art of sericulture, we must not forget 

 Dandolo. Dandolo, who was born at Venice in 1758, and died in 

 181 9, was the first who, at the beginning of this century, applied 

 limself seriously to the amelioration of the processes employed in 

 :he cultivation of silk. He endeavoured to regulate the temperature, 

 ;o introduce more order into the distribution of the food to the 

 A'orms, to have more spacious premises, and to have these properly 

 'entilated. 



Now we are on this subject, we must mention the names of those 

 who at the present day have rendered important services to seri- 

 culture — such as M. Camille Beauvais, who raised silkworm rearing 

 "rem the inactivity into which it had been plunged ; M. Eugene 

 Robert, who founded in the south of France the first successful silk- 

 -vorro nursery ; M. Gue'rin-Me'neville, who has devoted his life to the 

 study of the same question, and to whom Europe owes the introduc- 

 ion and the acclimatisation of some species which will render us, 

 oerhaps, one day very great services ; and lastly, M. Robinet, who 

 las elucidated several practical questions in the art of sericulture. 

 ^[n bringing to a close this rapid historical epitome, we will state that 

 France consumes annually 30,000 kilogrammes of silkworms' eggs, 

 iach kilogramme being at the present time worth from 300 to 500 



