Nov. 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



175 



ON THE REVERSION AND RESTORATION OF THE 

 SILKWORM. 



BT CAPTAIN THOMAS HUTTON, F.G.S., 

 OF MUSSOOREE, N.W. IHDIA. 



For many years past the utmost anxiety has prevailed on the European 

 Continent, and more especially in France, in regard to the condition of 

 the common silkworm, known to science as the Bombyx mori, the con- 

 stitution of the worm appearing to be so thoroughly weakened and 

 undermined, by diseases arising from a long and uniform course of 

 domestication, ba.d nourishment, and other prejudicial influences, as to 

 excite the most lively apprehensions lest the insect should suddenly 

 become extinct. 



That such apprehensions are far from groundless may be seen in the 

 fact that one form of disease by which the worm is attacked, known in 

 France as " la muscardine," is said by M. Guerin-Meneville annually to 

 destroy more than one-fourth of the worms ; and it has been clearly 

 shown by this eminent entomologist, and by several experienced culti- 

 vators of silk, that the crop has, within the last ten years, dwindled 

 down to about one-half of what it used to be. 



Various remedies have, of course, from time to time been tried for 

 the purpose of arresting the progress of disease, sometimes with partial 

 and temporary effect, but more generally without any success at all. 



In consequence of these maladies, and their inability to arrest them, 

 the French, with prudent and praiseworthy foresight, are using every 

 possible means to introduce and acclimatize other species, which may, 

 in some measure, fill the commercial void which would be created by 

 the loss of the common silkworm. 



Under these circumstances it occurred to me, that while assisting our 

 continental neighbours in the introduction of such wild species as occur 

 within our Western Himalayan forests, I might as well at the same time 

 endeavour, if possible, to reclaim and restore to health the most valuable 

 species of the whole ; and, consequently, for several years past I have 

 studied and experimented upon the Bombyx mori and its domesticated 

 congeners with a degree of success which I now purpose to unfold. 



In experimenting upon the worm, I have not confined my efforts 

 within the narrow limits of an endeavour to cure particular phases of 

 disease, but to effect a permanent benefit in the restoration of a healthy 

 and vigorous constitution, which, if accomplished, as I think it may be, 

 will of itself not only cast out this or that particular phase of disease, 

 but all the diseases under which the worm is now labouring ; and I am 

 fully convinced that until such radical change has been wrought, it will 

 be but time and labour thrown away to seek to cure particular maladies 

 as they appear. 



Hitherto the results of my experiments have been such as to warrant 



