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232 THE INSECT WORLD. 
windows. After three or four days, the fire ig lighted, taking 
care not to have more heat than 13° Centigrade round about the 
table which supports the eggs, and which should be placed as far 
as possible from the fire. Each day the room is warmed a little 
more, in such a way that the temperature is raised from 1° to 2° 
a day, until 25° Centigrade of heat have been attained, at which 
temperature it is to be.maintained when the eggs have reached 
the last stage, and till the hatching is terminated. On the 
first day few worms are hatched ; but the hatching on the second 
day is very abundant, as also that of the third. Of these newly- 
born worms two divisions are made, separated by an interval 
of twenty-four hours. The worms which are born afterwards 
are thrown away, unless they are so abundant that they can be 
made a third batch of, which is to be mixed up with the second at 
the period of the moult. 
In the large rearing houses there is a special chamber for the 
incubation. Various simple, convenient, cheap apparatuses, whose 
main object is to create a permanent warm and damp atmosphere, 
whose degree of heat can be regulated at will, have been proposed. 
M. Louis Leclerc, in his pamphlet entitled “ Petite Magnanerie,”’ 
has given a description and drawing of a little box, which is very 
useful for facilitating the hatching of eggs. We refer those of 
our readers who wish for further information on the subject to 
that work. As soon as the worms are hatched, the eggs are 
covered with net, and over this are placed mulberry boughs, 
covered with tender leaves, on which all the little worms con- 
gregate. They are then lifted up with a hook made of thin wire, 
and the worms are placed on a table covered with paper, leaving 
a proper space between each. They are given, as their first meal, 
tender leaves cut into little pieces with a knife. These are the 
operations gone through for the two raisings of worms on the 
second and third day of the hatching. During this first age 
they give them from six to eight meals a day, taking care to 
distribute their food to them as equally as possible. The first 
meal is given at five o’clock in the morning; the last at eleven or 
twelve o’clock at night. 
When the moult is approaching, the young ones are put on to 
boughs having tender leaves, so that they can be moved on litters 






