THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Dec. 1, 1864. 



224 ON THE REVERSION AND 



(luce fresh leaves without an injurious effort on the part of Nature ;* 

 whereas in tropical and neighbouring climates, where the summers are 

 warm and long, and otherwise conducive to the growth of vegetation, the 

 dread of injury need scarcely be entertained. Nature, indeed, herself 

 points out that such is the truth, for in the Himalaya the indigenous 

 mulberry-trees may often be seen in the early part of May without a 

 single leaf upon them, all having been devoured by the first or spring- 

 brood of the larvae of Bombyx Huttoni ; and yet in about three weeks 

 afterwards, or even less, the same tree will be found to have put on an 

 abundant and healthy foliage, ready for the second or autumnal brood 

 of the same worm. This sometimes goes on year after year without the 

 least apparent injury to the tree, and even the cultivated kinds are 

 often stripped of every leaf and berry by the monkeys (Semnopithecus 

 schistaceus), and yet put forth a second crop of both. What, therefore, 

 Nature does, man may surely, in similar situations, and under similar 

 circumstances, imitate with like success. 



Many things, indeed, in regard to the rearing of the silkworm, have 

 passed into laws without the persons who adopt them having the 

 slightest notion why they have done so, or even caring to reason on the 

 subject ; thus, we have one law forbidding more than a certain degree 

 of denudation of the foliage, which is strictly applicable to northern 

 climates only, and necessitates the planting of an additional number of 

 trees. Then, again, another law enjoins that no moisture must remain 

 upon the leaf for fear of injury to the worm ; and yet, in a state of 

 nature, we must feel assured that the leaves are often wet with rain and 

 dew without doing injury to the worms which feed upon them : why, 

 then, are they injured when in a state of domestication ? Simply 

 because Nature always feeds her worms with the best and freshest 

 leaves, and in that state no injury ensues — as I, indeed, have often 

 proved, even with domesticated worms ; but if the leaves, as is too 

 generally the case, from being closely packed, brought from a distance 

 in the heat, and kept for hours before they are given to the worms, have 

 begun to fade and lose their natural freshness, the moisture on them, by 

 imbibing the exhaling gases, will act as an active poison on the worm, 

 and kill it. 



Again, where the temperature of the rooms can be kept down to 80° 

 of Fahrenheit, it is obstinately asserted that the constitution of the worni 

 cannot suffer ; yet such reasoners forget that in a warm climate they 

 can only keep down the temperature by shutting up the house and ex- 

 cluding heat, and that in so doing they cause malaria to arise among 

 the worms and ordure, by the exclusion of every breath of that pure 

 fresh air which is so essential to the insect's healthy existence. 



Lastly, chopped leaves must likewise be compassionately given to 

 the new-born worms, for fear the hardness of the leaf should hurt tlieir 



* Mr. F. Moore informs me that eggs of B. Huttoni hatched in April, when 

 there were yet no leaves ! 



