THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Dec. 1, 1864. 



232 ON THE NEW CHINESE SILKWORM 



This is one of the wonders of chemistry, that substances composed of 

 the same elements, combined in the same proportion , should have pro- 

 perties so different as gum, starch, sugar, and cotton or linen fibre. 

 Their different properties must of course result from the varied modes 

 in which the atoms are arranged. 



Besides these four substances there is one other constituting a con- 

 siderable portion of the body of trees, which is also formed of the same 

 elements as the others but in slightly different proportions. This is 

 Jignin. It is an incrustation on the inner surfaces of the cell walls, and 

 its office appears to be to strengthen and stiffen these walls. Its consti- 

 tution is C 12 H a O s . In this case, as in the others, there are just as 

 many atoms of hydrogen as of oxygen ; these two elements enter into 

 the compound in the same proportion to each other as that in which they 

 unite to form water. If a tree or other plant is thoroughly dried so as 

 to expel all of its uncombined water, nine-tenths of the remaining sub- 

 stance consists of the five compounds, cellulose, lignin, starch, gum, and 

 sugar, and all of these are composed of hydrogen and oxygen in the 

 same relative proportion as that in which they exist in water, chemically 

 combined with carbon. 



Why it is that the atoms of these substances are so arranged in one 

 part of the plant to form cellulose, and in another to form starch ; why 

 it is that they are so arranged in one tree as to form gum, and in 

 another to form sugar, are mysteries which lie beyond the present 

 boundaries of human knowledge. 



There is one other organic element, and several inorganic, besides 

 those mentioned, which enter, though in small quantities, into the con- 

 stitution of plants, but a full discussion of the part which they perform 

 in vegetable economy would demand an exhaustive treatise on agricul- 

 tural chemistry and vegetable physiology. 



OX THE NEW CHINESE SILKWORM LATELY INTRODUCED 

 INTO EUROPE. 



BY LADY MARY THOMPSON. 



It has long been supposed, and it is still the belief of many, that silk 

 is obtained exclusively from the Bombyx mori. To this day, in France, 

 in Italy, and even in China, the silkworm is artificially reared, being 

 kept under cover and fed on the leaves of the mulberry gathered for 

 its use. The Bombyx Cynthia is also a silkworm, and has been reared 

 at Sheriff Hutton Park, in the open air, on plants of the Ailanthus 

 glandidusa. It is a native of the coldest parts of China, and some of 

 the living cocoons were sent thence in 1856 by a Piedmontese mis- 

 sionary (the Abbe Fantoni) to his friends at Turin, with the information 



