90 On the Treatment of the S'llk-Wornu 



XIX. A Memoir on the Treatment of the Silk- Worm, 

 Communicated to Mr. Jefferson, President of the 

 United- States, and of the Ame^-ican Philosophical 

 Society, by Mr. Robert Lowry, of Siena; trans- 

 mitted by Mr, Jefferson to the Society ; and by the 

 Society to the Kdit or of this Journal. 



HATCHING. 



TOWARDS the 1st of May, about which time 

 the leaves of the White Mulberiy are grown, and yet 

 tender, the linen, to which the eggs are fixedj should be 

 wet, on the side opposite to that on which they are at- 

 tached, with white wine ; the eggs gently detached with 

 a pen, or any thing which will accomplish this without 

 injuring them, and then spread upon sheets of paper, 

 in a warm room. One fronting south, with us, and 

 kept closed, will always be sufficiently warm to effect 

 the hatching, without the assistance of artificial heat. 



In Italy, some of the women, ^\'ho in general attend to 

 the silk- worm, place the eggs, wrapped up in cloths, in their 

 bosoms during the day, and, at night, in their beds, in 

 such a situation, that they may partake of tlie heat of the 

 body. But this appears only to forward a few days 

 the operation of Nature. A sufficient degree of heat 

 will always occur in the southern states of America, to- 

 wards the end of April, or beginning of May, in the si- 

 tuation I have mentioned. 



