PREFACE. 



Amongst the many names of persons in various coun- 

 tries interested in the cultivation of wild silkworms, the 

 utilisation of their products, and the entomology of 

 the subject, I venture to give the following list, which 

 will be found interesting by many, and will serve to show 

 to what a large extent this important subject has been 

 made a matter of study and investigation. In England we 

 have Dr. Roxburgh, Captain Hutton, Mr. Hugon, Dr. Bird- 

 wood, Mr. F. Moore, Mr. P. H. Gosse, Captain Mitchell, 

 Mr. Butler, Major Coussmaker, Lady D. Neville, 

 Lady Gilbert, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Geoghegan, Dr. Alex. 

 Wallace, Dr. Mackenzie, Mr. E. Hey cock, and others. On 

 the Continent are M. Guerin Meneville, M. Personnat, M. Ro- 

 bert, M. Camille Mayne, M. W. Reed, M. Braine, M. Maurice 

 Girard, M. Wailly, M. Costa, Wilhelm Carl Berg, M. Matthieu 

 Bonagous, Mich. Judisky, Roo Van Westmas, N. H. de 

 Graaf, Dr. Chavannes, and many others. My friend, 

 M. Rondot, member of the Chamber of Commerce, Lyons, 

 and President of the Silk Jury, class 34, at the Paris 

 Exhibition of 1878, also author of several important works 

 on silk and Eastern dyes, is at the present time giving much 

 economic attention to this question, for the purpose of con- 

 sidering supply for the increasing demand of the French 

 trade in wild silks. 



Amongst those who have interested themselves especially 

 in the utilisation of these wild silks must be mentioned 

 Dr. Birdwood, C. S. I., who was one of the first, if not the 

 first, to call public attention to the importance of Tusser 

 silk, in a lengthy report to Government in 1858, which 

 forms a useful and interesting appendix to this Handbook. 

 (See Appendix I.) 



Mr. Geoghegan is the author and compiler of a valuable 

 report to the Government of India on the silk industy of 

 India, dated 1874, and forming Part II. of "East India 

 products " which is indispensable to a study of the subject. 



