THE SILKWORM-DISEASE. 131 



the phases of this first moulting together, as is usually 

 the case in a batch of silkworms, they heganto present a 

 marked inequality, which displayed itself more and more 

 at each successive moulting. Instead of the worms 

 swarming on the tables, as if their number was uniformly 

 augmenting, empty spaces were everywhere seen ; 

 every morning corpses were collected on the litters. 



Sometimes the disease manifested itself under still 

 more painful circumstances. The batch would pro- 

 gress favourably to the third, and even to the fourth 

 moulting, the uniform size and the health of the 

 worms leaving nothing to be desired ; but after the 

 fourth moulting the alarm of the husbandman began. 

 The worms did not turn white, they retained a rusty 

 tint, their appetite diminished, they even turned 

 away from the leaves which were offered to them. 

 Spots appeared on their bodies, black bruises irregu- 

 larly scattered over the head, the rings, the false feet, 

 and the spur. Here and there dead worms were 

 to be seen. On lifting the litter, numbers of corpses 

 would be found. Every batch attacked was a lost 

 batch. In 1850 and 1851 there were renewed failures. 

 Some cultivators, discouraged, attributed these acci- 

 dents to bad eggs, and got their supplies from abroad. 



At first everything went as well as could be 

 wished. The year 1853, in which many of these 

 eggs were reared in France, was one of the most 

 productive of the century. As many as twenty-six 



K 2 



