New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon.
- Gordon, Charles Alexander, 1821-1899.
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: New theory and old practice in relation to medicine and certain industries : being an analysis of current literature of these subjects / by C.A. Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
133/158 (page 127)
![i has become the j)ractice to i^lant the mulberry-bushes in too crowded lines, to place under other cultivation the ground so planted, and to supply to the saplings unsuitable manure. Soil which formerly supported these trees has of late become exhausted; indeed there occurs a question whether the soil has not become altogether unsuited for that culture, (p. 100.) At all events, under the action of decay of the mulberry parasites (animal and vegetable) have multiplied, so that those trees have had to be uprooted to an extent which has only left a quantity equivalent |,to the production of twelve millions of kilogrammes of cocoons—that is one-half of what was the former yield, (p. 101.) [Surely, therefore, the circumstances in regard to soil, manure, climate, and method of cultivating the mulberry plant referred to in llie preceding paragraphs, which have resulted in the diminution of food for silk-worms, furnish sufficient explanation for the decay of the insect, which is dependent upon that one and only kind of nutriment; and as microscopic organisms occur in unhealthy plants, so do they chielly in unhealthy animals—not however as the cause, but as the result of that unhealtliiness.] The practice of renewing the seed of silk-worms and of cros- I sing different breeds of these insects has been adopted in France, Italy, and Spain from the sixteenth century, and in 1599 a work on this subject fas published by Olivier de Serres. It was to this method of crossiisg it Duseigneur attributed the vigour of the Japanese silk-worms, and leir resistance to pebrine and flacherie. (p. 127.) It is a question whether 16 old description of silk-worms can now be re-obtained, namely, those a rose or yellowish-rose color, plump, round, pomted, and heavy. 127.) [These being the characteristics of the best quality of insects, cording to ancient Chinese rules dating from several centuries b.o.] Ls in China, so in France, for the production of good quality of silk it is iiocessary that the seed should have the advantage of a moderate heat prolonged wmter temperature, and accommodation as quoted by Du Halde from an ancient Chinese author already alluded to; accordingly in 1830 two mountain stations were established with this view in France, namely one in Drome, the other in Ard^che. (p. 129.) It is also found that the more the worms have of space, and the more leaves they consume, the richer are their cocoons in silk. (p. 130). [Also in accordance with Chinese teaching.] Little attention is at present paid in the roaring of worms hatched from foreign seed, or to the varieties of the mulberry on which the insects feed in their own native country, notwithstanding the remarks made on](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22292512_0135.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
