FARMERS' REGISTER 



675 



Instances of the dormant elate, in which the 

 eeeds of the plants may remain /or many years, 

 and without injury to their final production, are 

 numerous ; and daily instances occur of the seeds 

 of plants dug up from depths beyond the reach of 

 atmospheric and other vegetative influences — dor- 

 mant and unimpaired ; the vital principle, though 

 Bleeping, had resisted their decomposition, and 

 was ready to receive the impulse to a future and 

 healthy life. Clover seed has been known to ve- 

 getate and flourish, after a sleep in the bowels of 

 the earth, for twenty years or more. Grains of 

 wheat, it is well authenticated, have been taken 

 up with mummies, from the catacombs of Egypt, 

 after a lapse, probably, of as many centuries, and 

 have vegetated, and yielded a healthy product. 



In truth no physiological fact is better establish- 

 ed, than the indefinite dormancy of the seed of 

 plants, while deprived of the influence of the 

 agents of vegetation, and the revival upon their 

 admission into a full and healthy action. 



From the period of the elicited spark of actual 

 life — and of the partial performance of physiologi- 

 cal functions — the date of the term of its vital ex- 

 istence commences whether that term be one, or 

 many years ; or dependent on future physical 

 agencies which may control it. (5) 



In this class of animals — the oviparous— few 

 observations have been made on this point. Vet 

 the general analogy before alluded to, and the 

 Eimilariiy of principles, under a similarity of cir- 

 cumstances, may justify similar conclusions. 



The diverse terras of life, in animals and ve- 

 getables are dependent on their various and re- 

 spective structures, adjusted for their growth and 

 consumption ; and the period necessiirily com- 

 mences from that of organic effort ; before that 

 time, none of its structure being called into action, 

 no portion of its physical being can be impaired, 

 or its duration shortened ; and the entire term 

 (if any) allotted by nature, will take date, not from 

 the sleeping, but from the excited or actual life; 

 from this term it had begun to grow, use its ener- 

 gies, and consume its term of vital existence. 

 These remarks are necessarily not applicable to 

 the viviparous animals, whose embryon is not de- 

 pendent on casual, or extrinsic warmth, or other 

 agencies ; — its evolutions begin and progress wiih 

 regularity, from its first inception, the embryon of 

 the seed, and that of the egg, it is well baovvn, 

 sleep after iinpregnaiion, till excited ; and as soon 

 would I expect a lamp to burn out its contents 

 without being lighted, as that a silk-worm egs 

 should impair, or consume a part ol' its natural 

 term, before its actual life had commenced ; — when 

 this has commenced, it cannot be repressed, or 

 retarded, consistently with the health of the ani- 

 mal, and the attempt may, aprinri — and no doubt 

 will be attended with injury. (G) I 



Finally, the experiment, though accidental, of j 

 Mr, Carson, "of retarding the hatching of silk 

 silk worm esrgs, li-om 1S37 to 1839,'' is conclusive; 

 your suggestion of l\ie possibility of a mistake, is 

 nothing more than what the lawyers would call a 

 "polentia reraolisbima." 



iVlr. INlcLean's experiment, which was highly 

 flattering, made a protraction of about one month, 

 and the progeny healthy. 



My own experiment, reported by me for your 

 Journal, made a protraction of litile more than 

 three months. In Ihia case, the first hatching 



was on April 28, 1840 ; the third, on August 1st 

 ensuing, from eggs of the same identical hatching, 

 to wit : on May 3d or 4tli, 1839, as positively as- 

 serted by the gentleman of whom 1 purchased 

 them, who had a memorandum of the fact. In 

 my report 1 added the following, viz : " in this 

 case, above stated, there can be no mistake in 

 respect to the identical age of all the eggs — they 

 were purchased by me of a gentleman in Cam- 

 bridge, my neighbor, who reared, the last year 

 (1839) for the first and only time, a solitary crop 

 of cocoons, and he eold to me the whole of their 

 product of eggs ; I obtained none from any other 

 person, either before or since, or at any other time 

 whatever." 



From the whole premises, I am irresistibly led 

 to conclude — that the new position you have ta- 

 ken against retarding silk-worm eggs, is erroneous, 

 that the eggs will continue unaffected and dormant 

 without injury, almost indefinitely, until brought 

 within a hatching temperature ; and eonsequently, 

 that retarding the process beyond the usual or na- 

 tural period, is practicable without impairing the 

 health of the progeny ; and that the embryon 

 having undergone excitation, cannot be repressed 

 without injury to the product, in a greater or lesa 

 degree. 



And I confidently believe that subsequent ex- 

 periments will confirm the accuracy of the few al- 

 ready made, and above quoted ; and that the 

 general and extensive failures of the present year, 

 may be referred to the singularly unfavorable sea- 

 son, requiring singularly diligent management and 

 attention. Respectfully yours, &c. 



Joseph E. Muse. 



reimarks by the editor on the prece- 

 DING COaiMUNlCATION. 



(1) The Doctor asserts that we maintain that 

 "the silk-worm requires exactly twelve months 

 to pass through the various stages of its existence." 

 What we did say was, that " the silk-worm, when 

 left to itself, exposed to the ordinary atmosphere, 

 hatches in the spring of the year exactly at the 

 time the mulberry leaves open. It is therefore an 

 annualinscct, and requires exactly twelve months 

 to pass through the various stages of its existence. 

 If, for example, a silk-worm was hatched on the 

 first day of May 1840, the eggs that it would pro- 

 duce would naturally hatch on the 1st day of JVlay 

 1S41." The variations, and omissions in the Doc- 

 tor's quotation, and what we actually said are 

 marked by italics. We were speaking of the 

 silk-worm in a state of nature and not of its domes- 

 ticated condition, or of what it could be made to 

 do by artificial means. We inferred, however, 

 from the fiict that it was an annual insect, and 

 thus required a full year to complete its circle of 

 existence in a state of nature, the exisience of a 

 law of nature which could not be violated to any 

 considerable extent with impunity. We do not 

 |)retend to assume that nature's operations may 

 not be greatly modified by art ; and we distinctly 

 stated that by artificial means, the eggs of silk- 

 worms might be retarded or accelerated in hatch- 

 ing one month without material injury. The po- 

 sition assumed was and is, that the precise time 

 silk-worm eggs will naturally hatch, is one year 

 from the time their parents were hatched ; and 

 the longer they are retarded beyond that time 



