February 5, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



79 



Chinese cities. Wherever he had an opportunity of walking 

 diametrically across lengthy curves of the river he found the 

 inclosed area to be extremely well cultivated; though not so 

 flat, its general appearance recalled many features of the 

 Tonquin delta, especially in its great wealth of Bamboos. 

 The productions of the soil are much the same, the papaw, 

 areca-palm, sweet potato, turnip, ground-nut, orange-tree, 

 etc. ; but a peculiar Hainan feature is the cocoa-nut palm. 

 Another peculiarity of this region is the ubiquitousness of 

 the dwarf Pandanus, probably the same as the P. odoratis- 

 sima of Fiji, the fibre of which is used in the manufacture 

 of grass-cloth, and is usually known to foreign trade here as 

 hetnp. Much of the land was under sweet potato cultiva- 

 tion, and every household seemed to possess a few pigs, of 

 the very superior and stereotyped Hainan variety, black as 

 to the upper and white as to the lower part of the body, with 

 a dividing line of gray running along the side from the 

 snout to the tail. These wholesome-looking pigs are fattened 

 on the sweet potato, and do not rely for sustenance upon 

 precarious scavengering, as is the case with the repulsive and 

 uncleanly animals of North China. Land contiguous to the 

 river is irrigated by enormous wheels, forty feet in diameter, 

 of very ingenious construction, moved by the current, need- 

 ing no attention, and discharging perhaps one hundred gal- 

 lons of water in a minute into the trough above, day and 

 night without intermission. He passed several large pottery 

 establishments; but, as at the New Year all business and 

 cultivation are suspended for a few days, the opportunity 

 was not a very good one for gathering precise information. 

 The temperature during the week ranged between 50° and 

 69° F. Game seemed plentiful everywhere, and he mentions 

 that a German resident has recently made a very flne collec- 

 tion of about 400 Hainan birds, embracing 154 species, which 

 will shortly be on their way to a Berlin museum. One of 

 the commonest birds in the river is a spotted white and black 

 kingfisher of large size. Amongst the trees which attracted 

 his attention was one locally called the "great-leaved ban- 

 yan," which looks remarkably like the gutta-percha tree : the 

 natives seem to use its gum mixed with gambler, in order to 

 make that dye " fast; " but there is some doubt whether it is 

 not the sap of the real banyan-tree which is used for the 

 purpose. A very strong silk is made from the grub called 

 the "celestial silk-worm," or, locally, "paddy-insect." 

 This grub is found on a sort of maple. When full-grown 

 it is thrown into boiling vinegar, on which the "head " of 

 the gut, or "silk," appears; this is sharply torn out with 

 both hands, drawn apart, and is as long as the space between 

 them, say five feet; it is so strong that one single thread of 

 it is suJBBcient to make a line with which to catch the smaller 

 kinds of fish. 



SERICULTURE IN ASIA MINOR.' 



In May, 1885, the writer was enabled, from personal ob- 

 servation on the spot, to report upon the silk harvest of 

 Bournabat, near Smyrna, Asia Minor, which report was 

 printed in the Journal (Vol. XXXIII. p. 852). The sericul- 

 tural industry was then in a state of slow revival from a 

 condition of almost utter collapse, caused by the deadly 

 effects of the various silkworm diseases which had long dev- 

 astated, and nearly ruined, the " magnaneries " of France 

 and Italy. Subsequently, in 1887, in an extended and illus- 

 trated form, the report was reproduced, with additional seri- 

 cultural and other information, in the volume entitled "Pen 



' Fi om the Journal of the Society of Arts. 



and Pencil in Asia Minor," published by Sampson Low & 

 Co. On both these occasions the writer endeavored to in- 

 terest the public in the story of an effort, on the part of an 

 English gentleman, to benefit the Turkish peasantry and 

 revenue of the country, which had more of the romantic ele- 

 ment in it than is usually to be found in ordinary industrial 

 operations. For nearly half a century Mr. John GrifHtt of 

 Bournabat, a village near Smyrna, has devoted most of his 

 leisure hours, well seconded by his accomplished Greek wife, 

 to combatting the maladies of silkworms, experimenting with 

 the various known races, and endeavoring to improve the 

 quantity and quality of their silken produce. Long before 

 M. Pasteur, the distinguished French physiologist, took the 

 field, Mr. GriflBtt had been working at the same problems, 

 the solution of which brought the great Frenchman after- 

 wards so much well-deserved honor; but while the one was 

 rewarded the other has hitherto been neglected. The first 

 enjoyed the wealth and influence of his Government to en- 

 courage him in all his efforts; the second has had to strug- 

 gle on unaided throughout his long career of philanthropic 

 endeavor against the inertia of sluggish or hostile officials, 

 the childishness of a prejudiced peasantry, and a horde of 

 unscrupulous native and foreign parasites, ever ready to ap- 

 propriate his methods without acknowledgment, to claim or 

 dispute his discoveries, and to defraud him in every possible 

 way. From the first, Mr. Griffitt welcomed and applauded 

 the remarkable results of M. Pasteur's investigations, and 

 became his acknowledged disciple; but, being himself a 

 practical silk-farmer, which M. Pasteur was not, was soon in 

 a position to shoot ahead of his master, to modify, supple- 

 ment, and stamp with his own genius many of the suggestions 

 of the great chemist, for which he never received either 

 credit or reward. Probably in no other country in the 

 world except Turkey could a native, or even a foreigner, ac- 

 complishing the revival of a staple industry, as Mr. Grifiitt 

 has done, have escaped recognition, or being loaded with 

 honors. He has rescued sericulture, upon which so many 

 thousands, perhaps millions, depend in Turkey, from extinc- 

 tion, and been a means of replenishing the usually collapsed 

 Ottoman exchequer, and enabling the Porte to offer British 

 bond-holders — if it chooses to do so — substantial dividends 

 instead of polite excuses. 



Still more recently the writer had a paper in the Journal 

 of Aug. 23, 1889 (Vol. XXXVII. p. 772), when further in- 

 formation was given regarding Mr. Griffitt's continued suc- 

 cesses, particularly in open-air sericulture. On the present 

 occasion he would add the latest facts, which are quite as 

 interesting as those already communicated. 



At the beginning of 1891 a report by the " Chambre des 

 Deputes " was presented to the French Government, in which 

 it was said that sericulture was not progressing in France in 

 consequence of the i-eappearance of the dreaded disease 

 known as " flacherie," along with some minor maladies, and 

 that the nurseries were being decimated. M. Pasteur's dis- 

 coveries had enabled the silk-farmers to vanquish the other 

 distemper, " pebrine," but "flacherie" was working havoc 

 everywhere, so a grant of several millions of francs was 

 asked to be expended in trying to crush the disorder. 



Meanwhile, Mr. John Griffitt, with no Government money 

 or help of any kind, had thoughtfully built up a system of 

 scientific silk farming at Bournabat, near Smyrna, in which 

 he combined the most notable of M. Pasteur's discoveries 

 with the invigorating method of M. Roland of Switzerland, 

 and his own experiences, with the result that his worms ac- 

 quu-ed such robustness that he had had no deaths among 



