Bombycidae 



sect, through ages of human culture, has become thoroughly 

 domesticated. It has been wrongly maintained that the moth 

 known as Tbeopbtla huttoni, and which is found in China and 

 western India, is the ancestral or feral form from which the 

 domesticated Bombyx mori has been derived. The common silk- 

 worm does not exist in a wild state anywhere so far as is known, 

 and is as much a domestic animal as the Jersey cow or the grey- 

 hound. Chinese literature clearly shows that the silk-industry 

 originated in that country. The Emperor Hwang-Ti, whose 

 reign was in the eighteenth century B.C., fostered the culture of 

 silk, and his empress, Si-Ling-Chi, who gave her personal atten- 

 tion to the breeding of silk-worms and the manufacture of silk, 

 was deified in consequence, and is reputed to be "the goddess 

 of silk-worms." The methods of securing the silk and weaving 

 fabrics from it were held secret by the Chinese for nearly two 

 thousand years, and only after ages was a knowledge of the art 

 transmitted to Corea, and thence to Japan. Silk in very small 

 quantities was imported into Greece and Rome from China by 

 way of Persia. Aristotle was the first writer in Europe to give a 

 correct account of the manner in which silk is produced. He is 

 supposed to have derived his information from those who had 

 accompanied Alexander the Great on his victorious march into 

 India. The price of silken fabrics in the West at the beginning 

 of the Christian era, owing to the cost of transportation, was so 

 great that only the very rich could possess garments of this 

 material. Their use was restricted to wealthy women. For a 

 man to use silken clothing was esteemed a sign of luxurious 

 effeminacy. Under the reigns of Tiberius, Vespasian, and 

 Diocletian the use of silken apparel by men was positively inter- 

 dicted; but gradually, with the increase of importation of raw 

 silk from Persia and its manufacture into stuffs in Asia Minor and 

 elsewhere, the habit of using it grew, and its cost was slowly 

 lowered. Under the reign of the Emperor Justinian, in the sixth 

 century, positive steps to foster sericulture as an imperial monop- 

 oly were taken. Silk-looms operated by women were estab- 

 lished in the palace at Constantinople, and Justinian endeavored, 

 in view of the loss of the supply of raw silk brought about by a 

 war with Persia, to induce the Prince of Abyssinia to secure to 

 him supplies of the article by a circuitous route. Relief was finally 



