150 Captain T. Hutton on the 
Unfortunately, just as the eggs of the third year had been de- 
posited and collected, a violent and unexpected gale of wind sud- 
denly upset the whole and irretrievably scattered them abroad. 
I had, however, seen such good reason for hoping that I might 
eventually by this method succeed in restoring the constitution of 
the worm, that I commenced de novo, and went over the same 
ground again. 
The eggs with which my experiment was recommenced, were 
procured in the spring of 1862 from Mr. Cope of Umritsir, in the 
Punjab, who assured me that they had just arrived direct from 
Cashmere, although, from their appearance, I strongly suspect 
they owed “their birth, parentage and education,” to the Punjab, 
and had been sent by mistake. But however this may be, on 
their arrival at Mussooree, I submitted them to the microscope, 
which at once proclaimed them to be ill-formed, discoloured and 
diseased, 
This Mr. Cope denied; nevertheless it was a fact, and as the 
worms proceeded towards maturity, various phases of disease 
became apparent, and I can only account for the denial of its 
existence by Mr. Cope and some cultivators in Bengal, by sup- 
posing that they do not know a disease even when they see it. 
The worst form attacked the worms just previous to their spin- 
ning the cocoons, and gave them the appearance of having been 
sprinkled with ink from a pen. This is, I believe, what the 
French term being ‘“ peppered,” or “vers poivrés ;” a most ex- 
pressive and appropriate term. 
Nevertheless the cocoons were formed, though, as might be 
expected, they were thin, papery and greatly deficient in silk; as 
cocoons, indeed, they were perfect trash, but, as I had a point to 
ascertain in respect to the silk, I despatched them to Mr. Turnbull 
of Ganthal, an experienced and skilful superintendent of silk 
filatures, ever willing to oblige, and who had likewise reeled for 
Mr. Cope of Umritsir, and Colonel Clark of Oudh; the result 
was, that my worthless cocoons yielded a silk not one whit inferior 
in quality to that produced by the inordinately-belauded cocoons 
of the above-mentioned gentleman; and, indeed, although in 
epistolé Mr. Cope pronounced Colonel Clark’s cocoons to be 
* the finest he had seen in India,” it was declared by Mr. Turnbull, 
who reeled them, that they had deteriorated 56 per cent. below 
the Cashmere standard furnished by Mr. Cope himself, and as 
that standard is itself about 50 per cent. below that of France 
and Italy, we may safely put down the best Indian cocoons of the 
true Bombyx Mori as being 75 per cent. worse than they ought to 
