12' 



THE SILKWORM-DISEASE. 



THE life of the population of certain departments 

 in the South of France hangs on the existence of 

 silkworms. In each house there is nothing to be seen 

 but hurdles, over which the worms crawl. They are 

 placed even in the kitchens, and often in well-to-do 

 families they occupy the best rooms. In the largest 

 cultivations, regular stages of these hurdles are raised 

 one above the other in immense sheds, under roofs of 

 disjointed tiles, where thousands and thousands of 

 silkworms crawl upon the litters which they have the 

 instinct never to leave. Great or small, the silkworm- 

 rearing establishments exist everywhere. When people 

 accost each other, instead of saying ' How are you ? ' 

 they say ' How are the silkworms ? ' In the night they 

 get up to feed them or to keep up around them a 

 suitable temperature. And then what anxiety is 

 felt at the least change of weather! Will not the 

 mulberry leaves be wet ? Will the worms digest well ? 

 Digestion is a matter of great importance to the health 

 of the worms, which do nothing all their lives but eat ! 



