OLIVIER DE SERRES 97 



the minister of Commerce, aided the same cause by 

 writing a manual of mulberry-planting and silkworm- 

 feeding for the use of the clergy. Good advice was not 

 the only means employed, for the king prohibited the 

 importation of silk-fabrics, and ordered the white 

 mulberry to be planted in all his gardens. From 

 fifteen to twenty thousand were sent to the Tuileries, 

 where a large house was built and fitted up for the 

 rearing of silkworms. 



Sully opposed the extension of silk- culture in France, 

 on the ground that it would encourage luxury ; his 

 objections were not heeded. Colbert, who found time 

 for every enterprise that concerned the interests of 

 France, attended to the improvement of the silk- 

 industry, and it gradually rose to great importance. 

 In 1780 the value of the annual yield of cocoons was 

 estimated at near a million sterling, and by 1848 the 

 figure had risen to four millions. 



De Serres calls silk a miracle of nature, and the silk- 

 worm " animal admirable," lacking as it does flesh, blood, 

 bones, intestines, eyes, ears and other things which are 

 found in nearly all animals. He has a good general 

 notion of the life-history. The abstinence from food of 

 the pupa strikes him as surprising. He enters into 

 many practical details concerning the propagation and 

 management both of the mulberry and of the silkworm. 

 The maladies to which the larva is subject are carefully, 

 though not instructively, described. Superstitious or 

 fanciful usages, such as dipping the eggs into choice wine, 

 liatching them in the bosom of a woman, and sipping 

 wine before handling the larvae, are mentioned, some- 

 times with approval ; the phases of the moon appropriate 

 to every operation are duly noted. The spontaneous 



generation of silkworms from the flesh of a calf, a 



o 



