172 Captain T. Hutton on the 
long struck me as being most objectionable, and one which has 
most certainly contributed in no slight measure to destroy the 
strength and healthiness of the worm. “ Nature,” observes 
M. Guérin-Ménéville, “ distinctly shows that it is her wish that 
the sexes should remain coupled for a certain time, and that time 
is generally from ten to twelve hours, and often more.” 
Yet, notwithstanding the truth of this remark, it has become 
the custom, after Count Dandolo, whose opinions are not always 
to be depended on, to separate the sexes at the end of five or six 
hours, and the unavoidable consequence is, that while half the 
eggs remain altogether unimpregnated and wasted, the other half 
will produce weakly and sickly worms. It naturally follows then, 
from this unnecessary interference with Nature’s mysteries, that 
the worms produced are pre-disposed to disease, and as this goes 
on year after year, and has done so for centuries past, of course 
the worm becomes more and more degenerated and debilitated. 
Surely even here a useful lesson may be learned from the pro- 
ceedings of the wild species, since every one who has tied out the 
females of any of the larger Bombycide, such as Anthereea or 
Attacus, must have observed that the wild male found coupled 
with the female in the morning, will, if unmolested, remain so 
until after sunset, when a voluntary separation takes place. 
Conclusion. 
That matters, as regards the silkworm, are in a very critical 
and unsatisfactory condition, is fully acknowledged by the French 
cultivators, but I very much doubt if they have adopted the best 
means of checking the various maladies with which the insect is 
beset. Quacks, doubtless, will be found in numbers ever ready 
to extol some secret nostrum, but the remedies hitherto applied 
to cure particular phases of disease are calculated to exercise but 
a temporary effect, and do not by any means strike boldly home 
and remove the causes from which the maladies arise; hence in 
1861, it was feared that the yield of silk throughout all France 
would scarcely rise to one-half the return given in previous years. 
Perfectly useless is it to seek in foreign lands for a healthier and 
more vigorous seed, since the loss of constitution is universal, and 
I confidently aver that nothing short of the re-discovery of the 
insect in its original state of nature, or of the complete restoration 
of the constitution of the domesticated stock by causing the worm 
to revert to its pristine colour and characteristics, will ever be 
able to avert the doom which now appears to be impending over 
the whole domestic stock of Bombyces. 
la 
