146 THE SILK WORM. 



DISEASES OF THE SILK WORM. 



The silk-worm is perhaps the most delicate insect 

 in existence. The least injury, wet leaves, or tobac- 

 co smoke, is fatal to them. The rest of the caterpil- 

 lar tribes, which are a mere pest to mankind, have a 

 great tenacity of life; for I have by way of experi- 

 ment, cut the common catterpillar suddenly in two 

 with a sharp knife, and one-half crawled with the same 

 'facility that the whole body did. I have also placed 

 them in close confinement, and smoked them with se- 

 gar smoke during twenty minutes, without apparently 

 the least effect. 



The silkworm is also the most inoffensive creature 

 in the world, Nature having made it entirely for 

 usefulness, without giving it any means for self-de- 

 fence. Yet almost every creature in the creation ap- 

 pears to be an enemy to it. Among its enemies may 

 be enumerated the cat, rat, mouse, cockroach, ant, 

 spider, and many smaller insects, as bird lice. A gen- 

 tleman in Pennsylvania had a whole crop of worms 

 destroyed by lice, which fell from pigeons' nests 

 above them. I had a very large silk-worm, which 

 commenced spinning late in the evening, and to my 

 great astonishment next morning, a spider had wound 

 its threads around the worm and hoisted it up an inch 

 or two above its cocoon. I examined it, and found it 

 dead. Mice are extremely fond of the eggs, as well 

 as the worms. I have known a whole crop of worms 





