I792» cnibe siik-'xorm. 337 



ON THE SILK-WORM. 



x'rchii the queries of several correspondents I find that tlie 

 nature of the silk-worm is not generally understood. ,A 

 succinct account of that wonderful creature will, I doubt 

 not, prove acceptable to them. 



The silk-worm is a species of caterpillar, which, like all 

 others of the same clafs, undergoes a variety of changes, 

 that, to persons' who are not acquainted with objects of 

 this kind, will appear to be not a little surprising. 



It is produced from a yellov.ifli coloured egg, about the 

 size of a small pin head, which has been laid by a kind of 

 greyiQi coloured moth, which the vulgar confoivid wuh 

 the butterfly. 



These eggs, in the temperature of this climate, if kept 

 beyond the reach of the fire and sun'-lhine, may be preser- 

 %'cd during the whole of the winter and tpring ra.onths 

 without danger of hatching •, and even in summer they 

 may easily be prevented from hatching if they be kept ia 

 a cool place ; but in warmer climates it is scarcely pofsible 

 to preserve them from hatching, even for a few d:tys. or 

 from drying so much as to destroy them. 



Hence it is easy for a native of Britain to keep the 

 -eggs till the food on which the worm is to fc^ed be ready 

 for that purpose. When this food is in perfection th?- egg? 

 need only be exposed to the sun for a day or two, when 

 they will be hatched with great facility. 



When the animal is first protruded from the egg, it is a 

 •mall black worm, which is active, and naturally ascends to 

 the top of the heap in search cf food. At this stage of hi> 

 growth the silk-wcnn requires to be fed with the youn'^- 

 -. ,t and most tender leaves ; on these leaves, if good, he 

 ••ill feed very freely fcr about eight d-.'.ys, daring whicli 



VOL. viii. u [; -I 



