REPORT ON THE DISEASES OP SILKWORMS IN INDIA 75 



spin before buying the cocoons, the seed cocoon seller cannot sell 

 to him without his knowing if the cocoons are from a lot that had 

 shown flacherie, a thing that is quite possible in France. It is 

 very interesting to find that Pasteur remarks in this connection, 

 "Si j' etais educateur de vers a soie, je ne voudrais jamais elever 

 une graine nee de vers que je n' aurais pas observes a maintes 

 reprises, dans les derniers jours de leur vie." Thus the practice 

 of the Bengal rearer in taking cocoons instead of eggs has an emi- 

 nent authority in support of it — at least in part, (c) " Overfeeding 

 of worms " — a fault — if it is one — the Bengal rearer will never 

 fall into. According to Mukerji (1899) flacherie is common in 

 Mysore — at all events more common than in Bengal — and all 

 because they feed their worms more liberally. I can find no con- 

 firmation of this. When I was in Mysore I saw no cases of flacherie 

 and I was told that flacherie was not of much importance. In 

 my experimental lots when the feeding was much more generous 

 than in Bengal I never had any flacherie. (d) " Wet, sweating, 

 dewy and fermented leaf "—according to Mukerji the Bengal 

 rearer is very particular about this point, preferring that the worms 

 should starve than that they should, be fed improperly. Whatever 

 the real reason may be, it seems an undoubted fact that in India 

 the disease does not seem to be particularly dangerous — at all 

 events it is less so than in Europe. Any advances in the improve- 

 ment of rearing methods will naturally help to check flacherie, but 

 of w course, as usual in silkworm diseases', once the disease has ap- 

 peared little or nothing can be done to check its immediate pro- 

 gress. 



(b) Hansa, Tatka or Salpha {Gattine or Lucettes)* 



There are a number of different names given to a variety of 

 very ill-defined diseases, a few of which are given as a heading. 

 They are all so badly described that it is practically impossible 

 to effect a proper diagnosis. In Bengal the rearers occasionally 

 complain of " salpha " — very rarely of any other trouble of this 

 sort. Salpha, meaning translucent, is evidently the same thing as 

 the " lucettes " or " clairettes " of the French sericulturists. The 

 most characteristic feature in worms attacked by this disease is 

 their translucent appearance due to the almost complete absence 

 of food from the gut and the skin becoming semi-transparent- 

 Worms become greatly emaciated and gradually die, decomposing 

 after death as in flacherie. Bacteria are frequently present in 

 the gut in large numbers, and the peritrophic membrane, just as 

 in flacherie, is thickened and slightly opaque. These are practi- 

 cally the symptoms usually given for gattine— excepting the trans- 



