DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0297
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 257
indifferently on the ash, oak, and nagara; the Bombyx mori, as its name implies, feeds by
choice, if not exclusively, on the leaves of the mulberry-tree.
". I have now to speak of the introduction of the silk-worm into Europe. According
to Procopius, the Bombyx mori was first introduced into Europe in the reign of the
Emperor Justinian, by two Nestorian monks who had travelled in Serinda,—which,
whether it be India or China is uncertain,—and who succeeded in bringing a quantity oi
eggs,—secured (according to Photius) in a hollow cane,—to Constantinople, where they
were hatched, and the larva fed and reared on the leaves of the black mulberry. The
breeding of silk-worms in Europe was confined for six centuries to the Greeks of the
Lower Empire. In the twelfth century, the rearing of silk-worms and the manufacture
of silk were introduced by Roger, king of Sicily, into Palermo, whence this important
branch of industry was rapidly and successfully established in Italy, Spain, Prance,
England, and subsequently in most of our colonies possessing a suitable climate. Silk is
a secretion of a pair of long glandular tubes, called (sericteria/ which terminates in a
prominent pore or spinnaret on the under-lip. Before their termination they receive
the secretion of a smaller gland, which serves to glue together the two fine filaments
from the two ' sericteria ;■ the apparently single thread being, in reality, double, and
its quality being effected by the equality, or otherwise, of the secreting power of the
' sericteria.* The silk-worm commences spinning when it is full-grown, in some con-
venient spot affording points of attachment for the first-formed thread, which is drawn
from one part to the other until the body of the larva becomes loosely enclosed by the
thread. The work is then continued from one thread to another, the silk-worm moving
its head and spinning in a zigzag way, in all directions within reach, and shifting the
body only to cover the part which was beneath it. The silken case so formed is called
the ' cocoon/ During the period of spinning the cocoon, which usually takes five days
for its completion, the silk-worm decreases in size and length considerably; then casts
its skin, becomes torpid, and assumes the foi'm of the chrysalis. The main object of the
silk-worm breeder is to obtain cocoons of a large size, composed of a long, strong, very
fine, even, and lustrous thread. These properties of the silk were found reaiised in the
highest degree in the specimens transmitted from Prance, in which country the develop-
ment of the silk-worm has for a long period exercised the care and pains of many able
silk-worm breeders, and of late years has been the object of systematic advancement by
the Central Society of Sericiculture of Prance. Much skill is exercised—I wish I could
add without cruelty—in the art of killing the pupa and extracting it from the cocoon, and
in preparing the latter for unwinding the delicate thread; heat being the agent of destruc-
tion in most of the processes, as it seems to have been in the remotest historic times in
China. The method there employed, according to the old Prench missionaries in China,
is as follows :—' The extremities of the cocoon are first cut off with a pair of scissors; they
are then put in a canvas bag and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling
lye, which dissolves the gum. "When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle, are
pressed to expel the lye, and are left till the next morning to dry. Whilst they are
still moist the chrysalis is extracted from each cocoon, which is then turned inside out to
make a sort of cowl. They are then easily wound into thread.
" An accomplished author, who has celebrated the Great Exhibition in a work full
of apt and striking allusions, beautifully apostrophises the 'wondrous worm, self-shrouded
in thy silken tomb! Anon to emerge in brighter form, on higher life intent; but that
stern man thy mystic transformation intercepts, with fatal fires, consuming tenant for the
sepulchred The results of all the most approved modes of rearing the silk-worm and
preparing the cocoons were exhibited, and might be studied with advantage, in the Crystal
Palace. The Bombyx mori, having been bred and reared under the special care and
vol. ii 3 u
indifferently on the ash, oak, and nagara; the Bombyx mori, as its name implies, feeds by
choice, if not exclusively, on the leaves of the mulberry-tree.
". I have now to speak of the introduction of the silk-worm into Europe. According
to Procopius, the Bombyx mori was first introduced into Europe in the reign of the
Emperor Justinian, by two Nestorian monks who had travelled in Serinda,—which,
whether it be India or China is uncertain,—and who succeeded in bringing a quantity oi
eggs,—secured (according to Photius) in a hollow cane,—to Constantinople, where they
were hatched, and the larva fed and reared on the leaves of the black mulberry. The
breeding of silk-worms in Europe was confined for six centuries to the Greeks of the
Lower Empire. In the twelfth century, the rearing of silk-worms and the manufacture
of silk were introduced by Roger, king of Sicily, into Palermo, whence this important
branch of industry was rapidly and successfully established in Italy, Spain, Prance,
England, and subsequently in most of our colonies possessing a suitable climate. Silk is
a secretion of a pair of long glandular tubes, called (sericteria/ which terminates in a
prominent pore or spinnaret on the under-lip. Before their termination they receive
the secretion of a smaller gland, which serves to glue together the two fine filaments
from the two ' sericteria ;■ the apparently single thread being, in reality, double, and
its quality being effected by the equality, or otherwise, of the secreting power of the
' sericteria.* The silk-worm commences spinning when it is full-grown, in some con-
venient spot affording points of attachment for the first-formed thread, which is drawn
from one part to the other until the body of the larva becomes loosely enclosed by the
thread. The work is then continued from one thread to another, the silk-worm moving
its head and spinning in a zigzag way, in all directions within reach, and shifting the
body only to cover the part which was beneath it. The silken case so formed is called
the ' cocoon/ During the period of spinning the cocoon, which usually takes five days
for its completion, the silk-worm decreases in size and length considerably; then casts
its skin, becomes torpid, and assumes the foi'm of the chrysalis. The main object of the
silk-worm breeder is to obtain cocoons of a large size, composed of a long, strong, very
fine, even, and lustrous thread. These properties of the silk were found reaiised in the
highest degree in the specimens transmitted from Prance, in which country the develop-
ment of the silk-worm has for a long period exercised the care and pains of many able
silk-worm breeders, and of late years has been the object of systematic advancement by
the Central Society of Sericiculture of Prance. Much skill is exercised—I wish I could
add without cruelty—in the art of killing the pupa and extracting it from the cocoon, and
in preparing the latter for unwinding the delicate thread; heat being the agent of destruc-
tion in most of the processes, as it seems to have been in the remotest historic times in
China. The method there employed, according to the old Prench missionaries in China,
is as follows :—' The extremities of the cocoon are first cut off with a pair of scissors; they
are then put in a canvas bag and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling
lye, which dissolves the gum. "When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle, are
pressed to expel the lye, and are left till the next morning to dry. Whilst they are
still moist the chrysalis is extracted from each cocoon, which is then turned inside out to
make a sort of cowl. They are then easily wound into thread.
" An accomplished author, who has celebrated the Great Exhibition in a work full
of apt and striking allusions, beautifully apostrophises the 'wondrous worm, self-shrouded
in thy silken tomb! Anon to emerge in brighter form, on higher life intent; but that
stern man thy mystic transformation intercepts, with fatal fires, consuming tenant for the
sepulchred The results of all the most approved modes of rearing the silk-worm and
preparing the cocoons were exhibited, and might be studied with advantage, in the Crystal
Palace. The Bombyx mori, having been bred and reared under the special care and
vol. ii 3 u