1^9*' -imprcoements in India. •jg 



house, wliich are made of mud, in which the worms are- 

 kept. 



I am yet very unsuccefsful in the businefs of winding 

 ofiP the silk, although I have lately acquired a third persoa 

 ■who was exprefsly sent, as he says, by Tippoo to Bengal, 

 to perfect himself in this branch of the businefs. He says 

 the silk is of a much slighter texture than that which he 

 has been used to wind off, either in Bengal, or the Mysore 

 country ; and the silk weavers who have attended two or 

 three generations of the worms, under me, observe, that the 

 silk first produced by the worms was much stronger than 

 that which they now yield. 



If in your power to instruct me in this rery material 

 point, I (hall esteem myself much obliged, for without it 

 my zeal in the farther prosecution of the businefs will be 

 much damped. I remain, <b'c. 



Trite b'wofoty, Nov.Zt). 179 1. 



Trom Dr James Anderson to Robert Andrews, esif. 



Sir, 

 It will be a wretched businefs indeed, if, after having done 

 so much, your zeal (hould slacken on the oi^servance of a 

 circumstance which all the world knows, that the silk worm 

 is injured by damp and wet. 



In Europe there is but one crop a- year, and you see by 

 Mr Glafs's letter they have only three good crops in Ben- 

 gal ', yet here, the climate is so much more favourable be- 

 tween 70 and 100 degrees of heat, that the worms pafs 

 through seven or eight evolutions, and yield more good 

 crops than in either of those countries. 



The silk of my last breed on the setting in of the rains, 

 was like yours, much worse than ever I had seen it ; never- 

 tlielefs I made the boys wind it off as well as they could, 

 and the silk weaver has twisted it into excellent thread, of 

 which I am making a purse. 



It is not only the damp and wet, but a foul air is like- 

 wise generated thereby, which kills the worms; and, as they 

 decline in health, the quality of the silk is affected. How- 

 ever, although the rains have continued in a more violent 

 degree than has been known for many years bypast, by 

 directing a greater attention to the neatnefs and i.iiing 



VOL. xi. K. f 



