Silk Manufacture. 209 



CABINET CYCLOPEDIA. 



SILK MANUFACTURE. 

 NO. VII. 



Diseases of Silkworms. 'The silkworm is said to be sub- 

 ject to many diseases. There is reason for believing that most, 

 or all of these, are either the consequences of bad treatment, or 

 are easily counteracted by simple remedies. Count Dandolo, to 

 whose recorded experience reference has so often been made in 

 thfese pages, was obliged to have recourse to other cultivators for 

 the means of describing diseases that did not exist in his own es- 

 tabhshment. 



' The custom which prevails in Italy and France, of distribut- 

 ing silkworms to be reared in the dwellings of the peasantry, has 

 confined the management principally to the hands of ignorance and 

 prejudice; and little or no improvement had in consequence been 

 made in this part of rural economy, until count Dandolo devoted 

 himself to its reformation, and thereby promoted a branch of in- 

 dustry highly important to the prosperity of his native country. 

 This nobleman pursued the occupation with patriotic and philo- 

 sophic aims far different from such as usually characterize pursuits 

 of business. He brought scientific knowledge and enlightened 

 views to the subject, and afforded a clear exemplification of the 

 fact, that there is no process, however simple, no employments, 

 however humble, and which might apparently be consigned with- 

 out injury to the hands of the untaught and unreflecting, that do 

 not call for the head, as well as the hand of man, to conduct them 

 on rational principles, and to derive from them all the beneficial 

 results they may be made capable of yielding. It is seldom that 

 objects of profit are thus undertaken and pursued. It most gen- 

 erally happens, that toils of this nature are assumed from necessi- 

 ty, by persons who think only of rendering them subservient to 

 the calls of that necessity ; who have neither mind nor leisure for 

 experiments; and who, if, by departing from the beaten track, 

 they have made a greater proficiency than their rivals, are too 

 prone to keep secret their discoveries with a view to individual 

 advantage. Count Dandolo was not thus satisfied to find out and 

 to pursue the most advantageous methods, but widely disseminat- 

 ed the knowledge of his mode of treatment, not only by his 

 writings, but by inviting the great proprietors, his countrymen, to 

 send pupils to him, who might obtain practical instruction in his 

 methods. These pupils sometimes occasioned great losses to 

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