PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD EiNTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 811 



may attack the mother-moths in the following parts :— (1) Alimentary 

 canal and its appendages, (2) Muscular system, (3) Adipose tissue, (4) 

 Membrane of the tracheae, (5) Reproductive organs, (6) Circulatory 

 system and blood, and (7) Nervous system. If pebrine corpuscles 

 remain in any of the above parts and that part is not crushed well then 

 the spores will not be found and the moths will be passed as healthy. 

 I have examined moths of the same lot on many occasions according 

 to the Pasteur method and the modified method of Pasteur as recom- 

 mended by Mr. Mukerji and I have seen on ahnost all occasions more 

 pebrinized mother-moths in the former method than m the latter. In 

 Mukerji's method all the parts are not crushed well and a cover gla^s 

 is not used for examining the juice and so pebrine corpuscles are not 

 found if they remain in the uncrushed part. About 10 per cent, of the 

 mother-moths which have been attacked with pebrine very slightly 

 generally go undetected. If the major portion of the juice is taken 

 from the colon only, as it appears from Bulletin No. 75 of Mr. Hutchinson 

 to be done in Bengal, the chance is that rather more than 20 per cent., 

 of the moths which have been attacked with pebrine will go 

 undetected. 



It should be noted that in the nurseries of Bengal seed cocoons are 

 sold instead of eggs. Sometimes a large percentage of the moths coming 

 out of the above seed cocoons contain pebrine corpuscles, which is 

 responsible for the failure of the crops. If disease-free eggg are sold 

 to the rearers after examining each moth separately, as Mysore and all 

 other countries of the world are doing, the failures can be obviated. 

 If the conservative rearers of Bengal, like their confreres of Mysore, get 

 good crops from eggs they would certainly prefer to have eggs ms'tead 

 of seed cocoons fi-om the nurseries. The tune has perhaps come when 

 we should stop supplying seed cocoons from the nurseries. They should 

 produce as many seed cocoons as the men in charge can examine when 

 the moths come out and not more. The industry will be greatly benefited 

 if responsible overseers are sent to each rearing village to examine the 

 moths of all the rearers and allow them to rear the healthy eggs only. 

 The rearers will gladly bring their moths for examination if an arrange- 

 ment is made to examine them in a central place. 



The rearers of Bengal are suppHed with " industrial seeds " and not 

 with healthy eggs and so it cannot be said that the Pasteur system of 

 examination has failed there. ,Only a modified method of Pasteur 

 as recommended by Mr. Mukerji has been tried there and not the 

 Pasteur system in toto. It has not failed in any other country the cli- 

 matic conditions of which are similar to those of India. If any examiner 

 in Bengal takes it into his head to examine the major portion of the^ 



