ISilk Manufacture. 149 



pots filled with cold water, which must be renewed as often as it 

 becomes warm. 



' The hatching process, until within a very few years of the 

 present time, was usually conducted in a very immethodical or 

 uncertain manner. Many cultivators depended on the spontane- 

 ous appearance of the worms, called forth only by the natural 

 warmth of the advancing season.* Others had recourse to the 

 heat of manure beds, but the method most frequently employed 

 was to foster them into hfe by the heat of the human body. The 

 mode of accompHshing this, was to place a small silk or cotton 

 bag containing one or two ounces of eggs in the bosom next to 

 the skin. The persons with whom these deposits were intrusted 

 were forbidden to use any violent exercise, lest their charge might 

 be crushed, or otherwise sustain injury through the consequent 

 inequahty of temperature. It would have been unsafe to continue 

 the bags in this position during the night, and it was therefore 

 most usual to place them beneath the pillow, which was previous- 

 ly heated to the temperature of the human body, using precautions 

 also against injury, by placing some stiff substance over the eggs. 

 When this companionship had lasted three days, and it was judged 

 that the worms were shortly about to appear, the eggs were very 

 gently transferred to shallow boxes m.ade of thin wood, similar to 

 those used for containing wafers: these were placed between 

 warmed pillows as before described; and if the hatching were 

 still further delayed, freshly-heated pillows were supplied through 

 the ensuing day, and continued until the insects had burst their 

 shells. Some persons used warmed pillows from the commence- 

 ment, and avoided the system of human incubation. 



' Count Dandolo recommended and adopted the use of stoves 

 for heating the apartment in which his worms' eggs were hatched, 

 and by such means rendered the operation in a great degree cer- 

 tain, removing, at the same time, much of the trouble by which it 

 had previously been accompanied. Previously to placing the 

 «ggs in this heated atmosphere, the count caused the cloths to 

 which the eggs adhered to be agitated for five or six minutes in a 

 vessel containing water, in order to lessen the adhesiveness of the 

 matter which retained them on the cloths. Having then suffered 

 the water to drain from them during two or three minutes, the 

 cloths were stretched out on tables, and the eggs were gently 

 scraped fi-om them by an instrument whose edge was not suffi- 

 ciently sharp to cut the eggs, nor yet so blunt as to crush them. 

 The eggs, thus removed, were placed in water and washed, still 



• This is considered the most judicious way in the United States. 



