FARMERS' REOISTJER. 



103 



Dandolo's treatise on the 'Art ol' Rearing Silk- 

 worms,' even when seen in llie existing imperlecl 

 and manilestly Jaise English translation, (London 

 edition, 1825,) is a work which deserves very high 

 commendation. The practice of the author ap- 

 pears to have combined the accuracy of execution 

 required for philosophical experiments, with a de- 

 gree of success, and profit of results, which excelled 

 the best of previous or general practical operations. 

 And though, in our finer climate, we may salely 

 and profitably omit much of the care and labor 

 which Dandolo found necessary, still his rules and 

 his facts are of great value for conveying general 

 and correct information ; and they form the best 

 directions lor practice in the occurrence of any of 

 the difUcult circumstances of climate under which 

 he continually operated. If instructions are de- 

 signed to suit the most favorable circumstances, 

 they will be found wanting in every one of the 

 numerous difficulties which may arise even in a 

 generally successful rearing. But if directions are 

 suited to meet the most difficult circumstances, 

 they can be very easily omitted or slighted, when 

 not strictly required. 



Dandolo's work uses so much of arithmetic, that 

 it may be considered as presenting fully the sta- 

 tistics of silk-worms and their management. For 

 this alone it would be very valuable. But, unfor- 

 tunately, the French translator from the original 

 Italian work has misunderstood, and therefore mis- 

 translated his author, in some of the most impor- 

 tant arithmetical statements; and the errors so 

 made, though as gross as any well could be, have 

 passed, unquestioned and unsuspected, into the 

 English translation, and thence into all the Ame- 

 rican treatises which have made use of Dandolo's, 

 on what were thus impro|)erly supposed to be his 

 rules. And as the reader, after having been in- 

 formed of the existence of such errors, cannot tell 

 how far they extend, and whether any and each 

 one of all the denominations and value of weights 

 and measures has, or has not been, changed by 

 either translator, and therefore cannot know whe- 

 ther it be Milanese, French or English, it follows 

 that, even when correct, the staled quantities can- 

 not be relied on as being what Dandolo designed. 

 Hence one such falsely stated fact in twenty 

 serves to render doubtful and destroy the value of 

 the other nineteen, even though they may be truly 

 stated. 



The principal and most obvious mistake to 

 which allusion is here made is the mis-statement 

 of the spaces required by silk-worms in their dif- 

 ferent ages. Not having been able yet to obtain 

 the original work, we are unable to know certainly 

 and precisely what Dandolo himself meant in this 

 respect, either as to the actual denomination of 



measure, or the number of such measures ; but, 

 in the absence of the direct proof which the origi- 

 nal work might furnish, there is abundant testi- 

 mony (ijrnished even by the copyists themselves, 

 that they are totally mistaken as to the meaning 

 of the original, which they have perverted to a 

 ridiculous extent of error, without one of them 

 suspecting it. 



The first treatise published in this country was 

 the 'Manual,' compiled by order of the secretary 

 of the treasury, under authority of a resolution of 

 the house of representatives. IC the compiler had 

 simply translated and given Dandolo's treatise — 

 or if he had merely copied the existing English 

 translation, with all its errors— he would have done 

 good service. But while taking nearly all his 

 matter from Dandolo, or from his translators, 

 there is thrown in, and without being distin- 

 guished, just enough matter of his own, or of 

 others, to damage and discredit the whole. Yet 

 the compiler stated in his preface, that lie, "hav- 

 ing the use of the original work in Italian, as well 

 as the French translation from which the English 

 version was made, the errors of the latter were cor- 

 rected.'''' If this was, indeed, done in any impor- 

 tant particular, we have not discovered it ; and it 

 will be shown, that in the main one above men- 

 tioned, the grossest and most obvious errors of 

 both previous translators have been faithfully and 

 fully retained. Thus, instead of directing so many 

 square feet of space for certain numbers of silk- 

 worms, the American writer most carefully and 

 studiously, and over and over again, uses the 

 words "/esi sqiuire.'''' The absurdity of this error 

 ought to have been enough to expose it ; but the 

 compiler stuck to it, through the whole writing 

 and printing of his book. It was only after every 

 sheet of the work had been printed, that it seems 

 some body first suspected this great and general 

 mistake, pervading and aflfiecting the whole of the 

 calculations and rules, and put it as a general erra- 

 tum in the supplementary list of errors, thus : " In 

 page 175, last line, for ' feet square' read square 

 feet. In other places, the same correction to be 

 made." And this correction is necessary in so 

 many "other places" of the book, that it is cer- 

 tain that the writer had not even suspected his 

 mistake ; and neither has his supplementary " er- 

 ratum" been seen by any of his followers. For 

 others have copied the mistake from the ' Manual' 

 just as heedlessly as the compiler of that work did 

 (rom a preceding blunderer. We will give a sin- 

 gle example of the enormous absurdity of the 

 mistake. The space required for the accommo- 

 dation of the worms from one ounce of eggs, in 

 their 5ih age, is stated to be "one hundred and 

 eighty-three feet fijur inches square.'''' This is the 



