356 Or THE SILK-WORM. 
the middle of your bafket and open it, if the worm be 
dead, you may conclude all the reft are fo; becaufe the 
contexture of the dupion being ftronger than that of the 
other cocons, it is confequently lefs eafy to be penetrated 
by the heat. You mutt obferve to take it from the middle 
of the bafket, becayfe in that part the heat is leaft percep- 
tible; after you have drawn your bafkets from the oven, 
you muft firft cover each of them with a woolen blanket 
or rug, leaving the wrapper befides, and then you pile 
them one on the other. If your baking has fucceeded, 
your woolen cover will be all over wet with a kind of dew, 
the thicknefs of your little finger. If there be lefs, it is 
a fign your cocons have been too much or too little baked. 
If too much baked, the worm being over dried, cannot 
tranfpire a humour he no longer contains, and your co- 
con is then burnt. If not enough baked, the worm has 
not been fufficiently penetrated by the heat to diftil the 
liquor he contains, and in that cafe is not dead. 
You muft let your bafkets ftand thus covered five or fix 
hours if poffible, in order to keep in the heat, as this makes 
an end of ftifling thofe worms, which might have avoid- 
ed the firft impreffion of the fire. 
You are likewife to take great care to let your cocons 
ftand in the oven the time that is neceflary; for if they 
do not ftand long enough your worm is only ftunned for 
a time and will afterwards be revived. If on the other 
hand, you leave them too long in the oven you burn 
them, many inftances of thefe two cafes are frequently to 
be met with. 
It is a good fign when you fee fome of the butterflies 
{pring out from among the cocons which have been baked, 
becaufe you may be certain they are not burnt. For if 
you would kill them all to the Jaft worm you would burn 
many cocons, which might be more expofed to the heat 
than that particular worm. 
Ill. When 
