132 LOUIS PASTEUR. 



millions of kilogrammes of cocoons were collected, 

 which produced a revenue of 130,000,000 francs. 

 But the year following, when the eggs produced by 

 the moths of these fine crops of foreign origin were 

 tried, a singular degeneracy was immediately recog- 

 nised. The eggs were of no more value than the French 

 eggs. It was in fact a struggle with an epidemic. 

 How was it to he arrested ? Would it be always 

 necessary to have recourse to foreign seed ? and 

 what if the epidemic spread into Italy, Spain, and the 

 other silk cultivating countries ? 



The thing -dreaded came to pass. The plague 

 spread; Spain and Italy were smitten. It became 

 necessary to seek for eggs in the Islands of the 

 Archipelago, in Greece, or in Turkey. These eggs, at 

 first very good, became infected in their turn in their 

 native country ; the epidemic had spread even to that 

 distance. The eggs were then procured from Syria 

 and the provinces of the Caucasus. The plague 

 followed the trade in the eggs. In 1864 all the culti- 

 vations, from whatever corner of Europe they came, 

 were either diseased or suspected of being so. In the 

 extreme East, Japan alone still remained healthy. 



Agricultural societies, governments, all the world 

 was preoccupied with this scourge and its invading 

 march. It was said to be some malady like cho- 

 lera which attacked the silkworms. Hundreds of 

 pamphlets were published each year. The most 



