PEBRINE. 125 
before a definite answer can be returned. One of the most im- 
portant facts disclosed by Pasteur was, that the germ may exist 
undetected in the egg. Now, while a worm developed from an 
infected egg will invariably fail to spin a cocoon, worms subse- 
quently infected by contagion may, nevertheless, spin very valuable 
cocoons. But if such infected worms be preserved for seed pur- 
poses the moths will certainly produce infected eggs, and be the 
parents of a diseased race. It is, therefore, in the later stages of 
the life-history of the insect that the noxious corpuscles must be 
sought for; and Pasteur’s method, which has revived the silk- 
rearing industries of France and Italy, is based on a microscopic 
examination of the chrysalis and moth with a view to ensuring the 
health of the succeeding generation by the selection of the eggs of 
those moths only which are themselves healthy. There would be 
nothing surprising in the development of an epidemic in China. 
The malady is not a new one; there is historical evidence that it 
has always committed ravages of greater or less extent in Asia as 
well as in Europe. The efforts to produce a large crop are them- 
selves favourable to its development, as they result in more crowded 
cultures and diminished care in attending to the sanitary conditions 
under which the worms should be reared. Finally, failure in any 
locality tends to develop an epidemic, because it leads to an 
increased trade in eggs. With the increase of demand the culti- 
vators and dealers become careless as to the quality of the eggs, 
and thus diseased cultures may be spread far and wide, the 
intensity of the affection and the probability of contagion being 
increased continually. This was the result throughout Europe, 
and to some extent in Asia, when the development of the epidemic 
in France and Italy led to a demand for eggs wherever serici- 
culture was carried on. Indeed, M. Pasteur predicted an out- 
break of febvine even in Japan itself, almost the only quarter from 
which a few years ago healthy eggs could be obtained. In China 
it is admitted that the disease has always prevailed more or less, 
and the natives have long adopted a method of subjecting the eggs 
to baths of salt and water, and lime and water, which, it is held, 
prevent the sickly eggs from hatching. This, however, is not a 
very scientific method, and there is good reason to doubt whether 
it is really ebrine or the other ill to which silkworms are liable— 
Jlacherte—against which such baths are effective. The thing is to 
secure a large supply of healthy eggs, not merely to kill off those 
intended for hatching—obviously a costly process for the cultivator. 
Should the Chinese be in real danger of losing their silk-rearing 
industry from febrine, and be induced to avail themselves of M. 
Pasteur’s method for its restoration, they will be taught that 
Western science is worth something after all. — Manchester 
Guardian. 
