THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. IQQ 



of Silkworms have, in this country, been generally 

 consigned to the care of ypung people, and chiefly 

 those of the female sex. They have been preserved 

 in bureaus, and chests of drawers, in rooms where 

 fires have been constantly kept during the winter 

 season. In the spring, as soon as the influence of 

 the sun began to be powerful, the eagerness of 

 youthful curiosity had caused them to be removed 

 to windows, where the sun exerted its full power, 

 or even increased in warmth by passing through 

 the glass ; and, in this situation, they have been 

 generally forced into existence witliiii a few hours, 

 in a season when the temperature of the air was 

 unfit for them, and their proper food could not be 

 procured. 



Mrs "Williams has proved that the hatching of 

 eggs of Silkworm Moths may be accelerated, and has 

 averred, that it is even possible to hatch them in 

 the middle of winter ; and Miss Rhodes proved 

 that they may be retarded beyond tlie usual time. 

 For she found that, in 1783, her Silkworm eggs 

 were not hatched until the 2d of June, and not 

 even then without being placed in the sunshine, 

 and Mr Swain retarded them till the middle of 

 June, when they were vivified by exposure to the 

 influence of the sun's rays, the great source of life 

 and light ; and I have kept them over a whole 

 season in a cold damp cellar, without their being 

 evolved : from all which, it seems pretty evident 



