bZb PEOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



chance the fingers are soiled with the juice they should be washed with 

 water at once.) A few drops of 5 per cent, solution of caustic potash 

 should be put on the ovarian tubes and the gut which should be 

 rubbed well with a slide so that the ovarian tubes are crushed and the 

 gut also is mixed up with the solution. This juice should be taken with 

 the same slide and should be examined with the help of a cover- 

 glass. Dry and decomposed moths should be crushed in mortars and 

 pestles. A labourer can learn the work in a day or two. One microscopitt 

 will be able to examine 800-1,200 moths in a day of eight hours. I do 

 not advise the examination of the moths before the third or fourth day 

 after oviposition unless eggs are required to be sent to some distant 

 place. 



It should be noted that there is some risk in allowing irresponsible 

 men to prepare the slides as described above. If the examiner prepares 

 the slides he will be able to examine about 500 moths in a day of eight 

 hours. 



9. If the infection is possible through wounds in the skin the examina- 

 tion of the whole moth or the ovaries can be the only sure test of the 

 disease. In such cases it is probable that the infection may not have 

 reached the stomach or gut. 



10. The Pasteur system is not perfect and there is room for improve- 

 ment. We will gladly accept any system which is more effective and at 

 the same time economical. The modified method of Pastern: as recom- 

 mended by Mr. Hutchinson is certainly more effective than the Bengal 

 method. It is as effective as the Pasteur method but it is open to ques- 

 tion whether it can be adopted commercially, at any rate under the 

 present conditions. In the words of Mr. Lambert (one of the pupils of 

 Mr. Pasteur and who had the advantage of working under him and who 

 is one of the greatest living sericultural authorities). Director of the 

 Station Sericicole, Montpellier, France, in his letter to me of the 13th 

 April, 1918 (vide quoted above), " No useful purpose would be served 

 by limiting the examination to the gut. Every one wants to have a 

 method which is simple and economical. The gut theory is not a new 

 one. It is as old as Pasteur himself. He preferred to wait for the 

 examination of the moths for a few days instead of examining the gut." 

 All sericulturists from the time of Pasteiu knew that infection takes 

 place through leaves and hence through the alimentary canal but they 

 ■did not think it advisable to examine only the mid-gut. The nmltivol- 

 tine mother moths are examined according to thi Pasteur method in -places 

 like Japan, China, Siam, French Indo-China, Madagascar, etc. If 

 ive try the Pasteur method in India the disease ivill be controlled as it is 

 being done in the above countries. 



