Restoration of the Silkworm. 301 
ing to the health of the insect. Asa rule, the whole process will 
be more rapid in a high temperature than in a colder one, and it 
is to be observed that the longer the time consumed, the better in 
general will be the cocoon, for the simple reason that the worm 
has had ample time to come to maturity, whereas when the 
growth is forced and accelerated by high temperature, although 
the worm may grow to a goodly size, it will still have passed 
through its different stages so rapidly as materially to diminish 
the quantity of silk-gum, which it has not had time to secrete. 
The cocoon will, consequently, be less stuffed with silk than 
when, all other things being equal, a longer time has been con- 
sumed, Count Dandolo lays it down that thirty-two days elapse 
between the hatching of the egg and the formation of the cocoon, 
and he adds four days more for the completion of it, or thirty-six 
days in all. This likewise is the time given by M. Boitard as 
applicable to the worm in France. Dewhurst informs us that in 
England forty-six days are consumed. In China, according to 
published accounts, the time varies greatly, being from twenty- 
three to twenty-eight and sometimes forty days, with an additional 
seven days allowed for the cocoon, so that we have thirty, thirty- 
five and forty-seven days given as the time. Contrary to all 
experience also, it is said that the shorter the time consumed, the 
more abundant will be the crop of silk, twenty-three to twenty-five 
days producing twenty-five ounces of silk from one dram’s weight 
of newly-hatched worms ; twenty-eight days yielding only twenty 
ounces, and thirty to forty days producing no more than ten 
ounces. ‘This is clearly an absurdity, for it shows that the longer 
the worm continues to secrete gum, the less silk will it produce. 
Dr. Anderson, as quoted by Dewhurst, says that in Madras 
twenty-two days only are required; while Mr. Cope of Umritsir 
gives twenty-eight to forty days, but whether for the Punjab or 
elsewhere is not stated. At Mussooree I have found the time 
consumed by B. Mori to run from forty-six to forty-eight days. 
At Lucknow in Oudh, Dr. Bonavia gives “ about forty-six days” 
for B. Mori, and seventeen for the small Chinese monthly worm 
in the month of June, and fifty-one days in November. 
It is evident that these statements cannot all apply to the same 
species. In France and in Italy, in England, Oudh, the Punjab 
and Mussooree, the reference is to the annual Bombyx Mori, known 
in Europe as * The common silk worm of four moults,” and in 
India as the Cashmere or Bokhara worm, 
The time, therefore, consumed by B. Mori in France and 
Italy is about thirty-six days; in England, Oudh, Punjab and 
Mussooree about forty-six days. 
