SILK-WORMS. 
281 
comfit cocoon does not contain a chrysalis, but a white 
shortened worm, looking like a sugar-plumb, from which it 
derives its name. If the worm after forming the cocoon has 
not had strength to transform itself into a chrysalis, it is a 
proof it has suffered ; but what has been the disease ? No- 
body as yet has been able to designate it. Whole broods 
of cocoon will be affected by it, and produce scarce any 
thing but these white sugary worms. However, it is not a 
total loss, as the silk is of as good a quality as that of a 
healthy cocoon ; the only loss would be in selling them, as 
they are much lighter, but if spun at home, profit is equal, 
as the silk is excellent. A comfit cocoon may be known 
by shaking it ; the dried worm rattles, and gives a sound 
which is different from that of the chrysalis. In one of the 
three volumes published by M. Dandolo, since this work, he 
makes some observations on two diseases that do not appear 
to be exactly the same as those we have been describing, 
called in Lombardy calcinaccio, which, however, is very 
like the white comfit worm disease, and gattine. 
“ Calcination,” says M. Dandolo, “ is not a disease ob- 
“ served in any other species of worm, not even in the cater- 
“ pillars, that live in the open air, which evidently proves 
“ that it proceeds from evil management. This disease is 
“ the result of certain chemical combinations which may de- 
“ compose the component substance of the silk-worm at 
“ any period of its existence. The causes which produce it 
“ are such, that sometimes it will declare itself rapidly, or 
“ sometimes it will remain dormant until the moment of 
“ rising on the hedge, and even when it has formed the cocoon. 
“ It becomes general in a laboratory, or is partial, according 
“ as the chemical clement that produces it is spread or con- 
“ fined to peculiar parts ; but it is never contagious. A worm 
“ having died by calcination, put in contact with a healthy 
“ worm, will in no degree affect it.” 
Some opponents of M. Dandolo, particularly M. Decapi- 
tani, curate de Vigano (Lombardy,) having published that 
calcination was a catarrhal affection produced by a sudden 
suppression of transpiration, the author, in 1818, made the 
