the worm. The only matters about which care is taken are: Not sweeping the rooms in which the worms are placed without first sprinkling the floor with water to lay the dust; seeing that the leaves are fresh and never allowed to ferment; not using the same baskets to bring in fresh leaves as those that are used to carry out the old leaves. The seeds are placed for incubation during the last part of February or early in March. A few days before placing the seeds for incubation they are immersed for about three hours in water at about the temperature of 50° Fahr. They are then spread out on cloth for a few days (the seeds not being in contact with one another), in a room where a current of air can pass over and dry them. The temperature during the first day should be no higher than 60°; during the second day about 61°; during the third day about 66°; during the fourth day about 68°; and from the fifth day until the larva comes out it should never rise above 70°. Careful washing of the seed and attention to the temperature during incubation generally insure the development of the larvæ in seven days. In all successful silkraising countries the care of the larvæ is con average size was carefully noted, and typical worms were selected for illustration. The egg after seven days' incubation becomes a worm, which is fed at once for three or four days. The mulberry leaves fed to it are cut up with a sharp knife. If a dull knife is used, the sap is bruised out and the worms do not get proper nourishment and, indeed, find the leaves too tough. The worm is fed by scattering cut leaves over it about eight times-instead of sixty times, as in China. Of course it is given all it will eat, but it is not so carefully watched and fed. Nor is any care taken in regard to temperature, excepting that it is protected from great changes, which rarely occur at this season in Murcia. They are kept in outhouses, lowlying and generally with thatched roofs. They are spread on bamboo shelves and on the floor. At the end of the third day the worm generally becomes dormant for three or four days. When it wakes it is again fed with cut leaves, though more abundantly, for five or six days. It again becomes dormant, sometimes for four days, but generally for not more than two days, and sometimes for only a few hours. At fourteen days of age it eats whole leaves voraciously for about six 1. Female Moth and Eggs (Bombyx mori), produces about two hundred eggs. 2, Worm three days old. 3, Worm seven days old. 4. Worm fourteen days old. 5, Worm twenty-one days old. 6, Worm thirty days old. 7, Worm forty-two days old and quite ripe for drawing or spinning. 8, Gut-sack, there being two in each worm. stant as regards temperature and everything else. In Murcia there is of course some care, but what would seem neglect everywhere else. Nature does so much that she is left to do nearly everything. Consequently, the worm as produced in Murcia approaches in many characteristics to the wild worm. This is to a marked degree exemplified in the moths when they are allowed to develop. The female moth of the thoroughly tended Chinese moth elsewhere scarcely moves after its perfect development. The male seeks it, and after intercourse the male dies and the female lives only long enough to lay her eggs. The accompanying illustrations, showing the various stages of development from the seed to the silk sack, are as accurate as it is possible to make them. They are drawn from the worms of 1889, which was a good average season, with the exception that it did not produce as much as usual of the Maraña classes of gut. From 100 to 1,000 worms were taken at each stage, their days, when it again sleeps. Each sleep is generally shorter than the last. At twenty-one days it eats about nine days, consuming an astonishing amount of mulberry leaves. It then takes its fourth and final sleep. Sometimes this sleep lasts more than a day, but frequently it is hardly noticeable. It eats enormously for about ten days; then becomes restless, and finally, when about forty-two days old, it eagerly seeks some twig, branch, or anything upon which it can climb. The watcher then picks it up, and generally finds that it is about to spin. A comparison of the accompanying illustrations with those showing the growth of the worm in China, Japan, and France make it very clear that the development of the Bombyx mori is quite different in Murcia from what it is in any of the great silk-producing centers. The period of development is very long in Murcia: the Murcia worm is large at the age of three and seven days; it is small at the ages of fourteen, twenty-one, and thirty days; and it is im mense at forty-two days. The moth, however, is about the same size. When the worms are quite ready to spin, not an hour before or after, they are thrown into a tub half filled with a strong mixture of vinegar and water. This kills them instantly. They are left in this pickle about twelve hours-generally over one night. This gives a consistency to the silk-bags, of which there are two in each worm. The next morning the worms are taken out of pickle and broken in two, cross-wise. The gut sacks are, with a little experience, easily removed. Each of the sacks is taken at either end, while it is soft, and stretched as far as it will go. If the pickle is strong, the gut is to a certain extent shorter and thicker; if it is weak, the gut is longer and thinner. If it is too strong, the gut pulls out crooked and lumpy and cracked; if it is too weak, the gut has not enough consistency to draw out. When the gut is stretched out as far as it will go, it is thrown on the floor, and the extreme ends almost immediately curl up. The gut is covered with a thin filament called carne, or flesh. Toward the end of the day the gut is washed in pure water and hung up where a current of air will pass through and dry it. When it is thoroughly dry, the strands are tied in bundles of from 5,000 to 10,000, and in this state it is sold by weight to those who prepare it for the market. Those who buy the gut from the makers are frequently called manufacturers. Generally they are termed merchants. The first process through which the gut passes in their hands is the removing of the carne, or yellowish covering, from the gut. This is really the tegument of the silk sack, which having been removed leaves only what would have been silk if the worm had been allowed to spin it. Formerly this carne was scraped off with the finger-nails or teeth, which made the gut nearly always uneven or flat. It is now done by perfectly harmless processes, though the exact way in which it is done by the different firms is kept secret. Morris Carswell was the first to abandon the old method and invent a new and successful way of removing the carne. After the carne is removed, the gut is tied up in little wisps and thrown aside. It is kept moist until the process of selection. Women place a piece of cloth between their knees and insert a handful of gut into the cloth, holding it by pressing their knees together. They draw it out piece by piece, and, placing the tail end between their teeth, rub it quickly with a cloth. This removes whatever small particles of carne may still adhere and polishes the gut. While one end is held by their teeth, the women examine it and decide what its grade is, so far as thickness is concerned. They put the various grades between the different fingers until the hand is full. It is then left all night rolled up in a cloth in order to get it as nearly straight as possible. The next morning it is all gone over again, strand by strand, and the estriada, or crooked flat gut, is separated from the superior or round perfect gut. Some makers are far more particular than others in this selection, and as the estriada is sometimes worth not over half as much as the same grade of superior and never more than three quarters as much, the motive for admixing as much estriada as possible with the superior is quite apparent. During the past few years far more attention has been paid to this separation than formerly. The gut having been assorted in regard both to roundness and thickness is assorted with respect to length, and it is then ready for hanking. It is counted in hundreds and knotted at the head, or fuzzy end. Then it is laid away to dry. Next the jute is wound round the tail end of the hank. After this it is straightened, rubbed, and polished, while one end is tied up on a string on the wall. Then it is polished with a cloth. Finally, ten of the hanks are tied together, making 1,000 strands, and ten of these bundles are tied together, making bundles of 10,000 strands. It is now ready for market. At least one third of the gut is estriada. The proportion of the different grades of thickness (beginning with the thinnest-refina, fina, regular, padron second, padron first, maraña, double thick maraña, imperial, and hebra) varies from year to year. The efforts of gut manufacturers are always toward making as heavy and as long gut as they can, and yet there is no possibility of overcoming natural tendencies or even of understanding them well enough to make anything like a safe prediction as to what the crop of any year will be as to quantity or quality. In some years, when the raw product is high and all other expenses about equal, the total result may be very profitable to merchants and manufacturers. On the other hand, it frequently happens that years when everything seems favorable show heavy losses. The least disturbance of normal relations by the influx of speculators and new merchants renders it impossible for any one to do business except at a ruinous loss. It will be seen that all grades of gut cost the merchants the same, all of the raw material being bought at one price by weight, and all having to pass through the same processes of cleansing, assorting, and putting up in marketable packages. It is very difficult for the merchant to estimate closely the cost of each size, quality, and length; indeed, it is impossible for him to do so at all on any single lot. Only by a very accurate knowledge of what he can obtain for the very low grades as well as the most salable grades and lengths, together with the faculty of close practical general averaging of his season's products, can he feel at all certain how to fix a cost price on each of the sizes, qualities, and lengths. All of the superior quality of from 104 to 12 inches shows a profit. The maraña, imperial, and hebra of superior quality show a great profit; but the short gut and nearly all of the estriada (rough) show a loss. When the assortment gives an unusually large proportion of short lengths and estriada, the merchant loses heavily because it is impossible to dispose of much estriada at any price. During 1889 gut sold at retail from .05 to 12.00 per 100. Nearly all of the manufacturers mix in a quantity of the estriada with the superior, and in this way dispose of this surplus of estriada to careless buyers. As there are only two or three experts in this country, and very few anywhere, this is not a hard thing to do. That this is owing to the real difficulty of the subject will be apparent when it is considered that at least 200 people in the United States owe their entire support to the wages they receive for work done with this material, and at least 20,000 people deal in it and the articles of which it is the most valuable part, to say nothing of the many thousand anglers who constantly use it made up in leaders, flies, gangs, and snelled hooks. There are some simple rules that may wisely be observed by buyers. The value of gut depends on the length and quality. In this country the most valuable lengths are from 10 to 12 inches. Tackle-dealers' quotations, unless otherwise specified, are for gut from 10 to 11 inches. Twelveinch gut is generally worth about 15 per cent. more than eleven-inch. Eight-inch is worth barely half as much as eleven-inch, and six-anda-half-inch is worth about one third of eleveninch. Unless there is an unusually large amount of long gut (that is, from 12 to 18 inches), it finds a good and high market in France. There is never much demand for it here. The quality of gut is determined chiefly by its freshness, color, and roundness. The freshness can generally be determined by the fuzzy end. If this is a clean, clear white, and not parched, the gut is probably new. The color of the gut itself should be a pearly white, without the faintest tinge of yellow, and should be very lustrous. The roundness can be determined by the eye and touch. The hank should be slightly twisted toward the sunlight (not any artificial light), and this will generally bring out the flecks" or flat dead white spots, which reduce the quality. By passing the second finger and thumb up and down a strand, any roughness or flatness will instantly be felt. The rough strands of good gut are never worth more than three quarters what the round ones are, and are sometimes worth only half. There should not be over 15 per cent. of rough strands, and the gut is unusually good if there are not more than 7 per cent. of rough strands. It is customary for tackle-makers to stain gut before using it. When the gut is stained it should be what is known as "mist color"; that is, it should be the color of clouds (without any rainbow tints). There should not be the faintest tinge of blue or green. Gut appears smaller after it is stained, though it is, if anything, larger. Before attempting to knot gut, it should be soaked in pure water. Thirty minutes should render regular gut pliable, forty minutes will soften padron, maraña should be soaked at least an hour, and double thick maraña not less than three hours. Hebra will require six hours. While by far the largest demand for silk-worm gut is for manufacture into fishing-tackle, there is a growing demand for it from surgeons, who use it as a ligature. Drs. Arpad G. Gerster and Lange, of New York city, have promoted with great success its use in this country. It was first introduced into surgery by George Fielding, an English practitioner. He, at the suggestion of his assistant, E. Heseltein, employed it successfully in a case of castration, Aug. 10, 1823 ( "On the Use of a New Substance, Silk-worm Gut, for Securing Divided Arteries"; "Transactions of Medical and Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh." vol. ii, p. 340). Fielding subsequently employed it in eleven major operations, with uniformly good success. James Wardrop, an English surgeon, published a paper in 1828 describing the method of using silk-worm gut as a ligature in securing large arteries of the human body. The late Prof. Burow, Sr., of Königsburg, was first to use silkworm gut as a suturing material in Germany. SOLDIERS' HOMES. The asylum for aged and disabled soldiers first established in the United States is that near Washington, D. C., for soldiers of the regular army, which is organized on a basis similar to that of the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris, and Greenwich Hospital near London. It was established under an act of Congress passed in 1851, and 200 acres of land were purchased with money levied by Gen. Winfield Scott on the city of Mexico at the close of the Mexican War. This land, three miles north of Washington, has been extended to 500 acres, where have been erected spacious marble buildings in Norman style, the grounds being ornamented with meadows, groves, and lakes, and containing seven miles of beautiful drives, supplying a public park for the city. Here Presidents of the United States frequently occupy one of the smaller buildings as a summer retreat, and here President Lincoln passed some of the last hours of his eventful term of service. The bill that created the Soldiers' Home contained as its first provision the following: all soldiers who have been or may hereafter be solAll soldiers of the army of the United States, and diers of the army of the United States, who have contributed or may hereafter contribute, according to section 4,819, to the support of the Soldiers' Home hereby created, and the invalid and disabled soldiers, and of all subsequent wars, shall, under the restricwhether regulars or volunteers, of the War of 1812 tions and provisions which follow, be members of the Soldiers' Home, with all the rights annexed thereto. The section to which allusion was made in this paragraph provides that for the sustenance of the Soldiers' Home every non-commissioned officer, musician, artificer, or private of the army of the United States should, if he chose, have the sum of 124 cents a month deducted from his pay, which sum should be passed to the credit of the commissioners of the Soldiers' Home. It is also provided that all stoppages, or fines adjudged against soldiers by sentences of courtsmartial, over and above any amount that may be due for reimbursement of the Government or of individuals, all forfeitures on account of desertion, and all unclaimed moneys belonging to the estates of deceased soldiers, should be also similarly appropriated. Further, it is stipulated with regard to admission to the Home that those entitled to its rights and benefits should be: 1. Every soldier of the army of the United States who has served or who may serve honestly and faithfully twenty years. 2. Every soldier and every discharged soldier, whether regular or volunteer, who has suffered or may suffer by reason of disease or wounds incurred in service and in the line of his duty, rendering him incapable of further military service, if such disability was not occasioned by his own misconduct. 3. The invalid and disabled soldiers, whether regulars or volunteers, of the War of 1812 and of all subsequent wars. It is further provided that no soldier convicted of felony or other disgraceful and infamous crime, or who had been a deserter, mutineer, or habitual drunkard, should be received into the Home without satisfactory evidence of subsequent ser vice, good conduct, and reformation of character. Any soldier admitted to the Home for disability who recovers his health so as to become fit again for military service, if under fifty years of age, shall be discharged. All persons admitted into the Soldiers' Home shall be subject to the rules and articles of war in the same manner as soldiers in the army. An act of Congress approved March 3, 1883, prescribed the regulations now in use in the Soldiers' Home. The board of commissioners of the Home comprises the general-in-chief_commanding the army, the surgeon-general, the commissary-general, the adjutant-general, the quartermaster-general, the judge-advocate-general, all ex officio, and the governor of the Home. The number of permanent beneficiaries, regular army soldiers, on Sept. 30, 1889, was 1,147; temporary beneficiaries during the year (regulars), 195; remaining temporary, 53; ex-volunteers lodged from March 1 to Sept. 30, 159; exvolunteers to whom meals were furnished during said period, 1,257; average number of patients in the hospital, 75 to 80 daily. Within the past three years an additional set of quarters has been built, but more will be required. The average expenses of the Home per annum are about $200,000. An addition to the receipts of the Home comes from the farm and from other sources-donations, the manufacture of certain small articles, etc. The National Soldiers' Home, and Branches. At the close of the civil war the vast number of disabled soldiers soon made it evident that some Government organization should take place in the direction of affording these veterans an asylum, and this caused the institution, by United States statute, of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The whole number of men furnished by the States during the civil war was 2,778,304; and from the date of the organization of the National Home to June 30, 1888, the number cared for by this institution was 45,725. Besides the National Home with its branches in different parts of the country, to be hereafter enumerated, similar organizations were established from time to time by the States or a portion of them in the North, and a necessarily smaller effort in the same direction was made in the South for the benefit of disabled ex-Confederates. In 1865 Congress passed an act to incorporate "a National Military and Naval Asylum for the relief of the totally disabled officers and men of the volunteer forces of the United States." The incorporators included Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Admiral David G. Farragut, Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson, Salmon P. Chase, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Gen. John A. Dix, George Bancroft, Gen. William T. Sherman, Govs. Andrew, Curtin, and Morton, Gen. George G. Meade, Gen. Joseph Hooker, Henry Ward Beecher, Gen. Carl Schurz, Hamilton Fish, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, William B. Astor, James Gordon Bennett, William M. Evarts, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Amos A. Lawrence, Morton MacMichael, Bishop Matthew Simpson, and William Henry Channing. It was further enacted that, for the establishment and support of this asylum, there should be appropriated all the moneys accruing in the war and navy departments through stoppages of pay, fines, etc., over and above the amounts necessary for the reimbursement of the Government or individuals, all unclaimed moneys due to deceased volunteer officers, soldiers, or seamen, and such donations of money or property as should be made for the benefit of the asylum. This act received many amendments, including the naming of the President of the United States, the Secretary of War, and the Chief Justice of the United States, ex officio, as members of the corporation, and declaring that the business of the asylum should be managed by a board of twelve, including the ex officio members just mentioned. Finally, in 1873, an act was passed in amendment by which the word "asylum" was changed for the word "home" wherever it might thereafter occur in connection with the institution, which thus became the " National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers." The method of sustenance originally adopted did not prove satisfactory, and, accordingly, all enactments in relation thereto were, under date of March 3, 1875, amended by an act that directed that the support of the "National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers" should thereafter be sustained by direct and specific annual appropriations by law. Acts have also been passed by Congress, from time to time, authorizing the location of branch homes in the different States, and making special appropriations for them. These branches have been established as follows: Central, Dayton, Ohio; Eastern. Togus, Maine; Northwestern, Milwaukee, Wis.; Southern, Hampton, Va.; Western, Leavenworth, Kan.; Pacific, Santa Monica, Cal. One at Marion, Indiana, is in course of construction. The managers of the National Home are the President of the United States, Secretary of War, and the Chief Justice, ex officio; Gen. William B. Franklin, president, Hartford, Conn.; Coì. Leonard A. Harris, first vice-president, Cincinnati, Ohio; Gen. John A. Marsh, second vicepresident, Atchison, Kan.; Gen. Martin T. MeMahon, secretary, 93 Nassau Street, New York city; Gen. James S. Negley, Pittsburg, Pa.; Gen. John C. Black, Washington, D. C.; Gen. Thomas W. Hyde, Bath, Me.; Gen. William J. Sewell, Camden. N. J.; Captain John L. Mitchell, Milwaukee, Wis. The report of the board for 1887 recommended that “ aid should be granted to such homes for disabled soldiers and sailors of the Union service as are or may be incorporated by the States and are supported by State appropriations." An act in accordance with this was approved on Aug. 27, 1888. The average number of members of the Home during the six fiscal years ending in 1888 was as follows: 1883, 6.738; 1884, 7.494; 1885, 8,118: 1886, 8.758; 1887, 9,718; 1888, 10,681. The average number present through the whole year increased in the six years named 3,943, or 59 per cent. The number of deaths in the year ending June 30, 1883, was 485; and in that ending June 30, 1888, it was 716. The mortality returns of the Home show that had its members belonged to a class insurable in the life insurance companies, the number of deaths in the same number of corresponding years would have been 450, while the number of deaths among the members of the Home in the last fiscal year given exceeded this amount by 266, or 60 per cent. These figures show the great disability of the members of the Home. The report shows, in regard to financial expenditure for the branches, the following: Central, $711,239.60; Northwestern, $188,185.29; Eastern, $182,170.71; Southern, $255,758.15; Western, $182,202.25; Pacific, $150,000; additional expenditures, $299,500; total, $1,969,056. This amount is less than the appropriations by the board of managers for the period named by $121,945.20; and the sum above mentioned as expended was further reduced, through cash sales of articles manufactured at the branches, amounts disallowed, etc., to $1,579,116.23, leaving a balance on hand of $14,363.04. The following are the requirements for admission: 1. An honorable discharge from the United States service. 2. Disability that prevents the applicant from earning his living by labor. 3. Applicants for admission will be required to stipulate and agree to abide by the rules and regulations made by the board of managers or by their order, to perform all duties required of them, and to obey all lawful orders of the officers of the Home. Attention is called to the fact that, by the law establishing the Home, the members are made subject to the rules and regulations of war, and will be governed thereby in the same manner as if they were in the army of the United States. 4. A soldier or sailor must forward with his application for admission his discharge paper and (when he is a pensioner) his pension certificate before his application will be considered, which papers will be retained at the branch to which the applicant is admitted, to be kept there for him and returned to him when discharged. This rule is adopted to prevent the loss of such papers and certificates, and to hinder fraudulent practices; and no application will be considered unless these papers are sent with it. If the original discharge does not exist, a copy of discharge certified by the War or Navy Department or by the Adjutant-General of the State must accompany the application. On his admission he must also transfer his pension certificate to the Home and the moneys secured thereby, and empower the treasurer of the Home to draw the said moneys and to hold and dispose of them subject to the laws of Congress and the rules, regulations, and orders that have been or may hereafter be made by the board of managers. The number of disabled soldiers cared for by the National Home followed very closely, relatively speaking, the number of men furnished by the States from which they came during the civil war. Thus, the smallest numbers of men from individual States in the National Home were: Two from Florida, which furnished 2,334 men; 5 from Nevada, which furnished 1,080; 6 from Georgia, which furnished 3.486; and 24 from Oregon, which furnished 18,010. The largest number admitted to the Home from the date of its organization from any one State was 7,878, from Ohio, which furnished 313,180; the next largest, 6,945, from New York, which furnished 448.850; the next. 6,160, from Pennsylvania, which furnished 337,936; and the next, 3,566, from Massachusetts, which furnished 146,730. At the last report of the Home, which shows a total of 15.899 inmates, the number of foreignborn was 9,571; native-born, 6,328. There were among the 15,899 above-named members of the Home, 5,989 married or having living wives or minor children, or both, and 9,910 single men; 1,525 could neither read nor write, of whom 26 per cent..were native and 74 per cent. foreignborn, leaving 14,374 who could read and write. The different branches of the National Home are not entirely dependent for subsistence upon Government appropriations, certain industries being prosecuted among them, which in some instances return considerable sums. Thus, in the Central branch, at Dayton, Ohio, the returns for manufactures by the inmates (being entirely clothing, shirts, and towels) was, at the last report, for the year, $84,601.99, and the returns from the sale of farm products $24,007.01. The Northwestern branch, at Milwaukee, showed a total receipt for manufactures of $13,730.93, and for farm products, $17,318.15. The Eastern branch, at Togus, Me., shows a sale of farm products of $16,728.62. This institution turns in also a moderate sum from the manufacture of shoes. The Southern branch, at Hampton, Va., shows manufactures, $4,799.55, and farm products, $12,879.99. The average cost of supporting the soldiers in the National Home, according to the last report, was $123.21 per man per annum. Besides old age and general debility, the most prevalent causes of sickness and death are rheumatism, paralysis, diseases of the lungs and air-passages, hernia, and either partial or total blindness, which seems quite prevalent. Heart disease carries away a good many. As a rule, the directors of the different branches of the Home insist upon temperance, and though there are some deaths from alcoholism, they are very few. The buildings are all commodious and convenient, and are surrounded by handsome grounds kept in the best possible order. Every branch has religious services conducted by both Protestant and Catholic chaplains. The following bill of fare for every day in the week at the Central branch, Dayton, Ohio, is an average showing of the way in which the veterans are fed. Sunday.-Breakfast: fried ham or ham and eggs, potatoes, bread, butter, and coffee. Dinner: roast mutton or roast beef, potatoes, green peas or dried Lima beans, cucumber pickles or pickled beets or green onions, apple, berry, or peach pie, bread, butter, coffee. Supper: stewed dried fruit or apple-butter or strawberries, sugar cookies, bread, syrup, cheese, tea. Monday-Breakfast: beef fricassee, fried hominy, bread, butter, coffee. Dinner: vegetable or bean soup, beet or bacon, pickled onions or cucumber pickles or horse radish, potatoes, bread, crackers. Supper: mush or rolled oats or hominy, syrup, bread, biscuit, butter, tea. Tuesday.-Breakfast: Irish stew, bread, and coffee. Dinner: pickled shoulders, potatoes, stewed beans or peas, bread, butter, coffee. Supper: Apple sauce or stewed prunes, or dried currants or cherries, ginger cake, bread, butter, tea. Wednesday.-Breakfast: Boston baked beans with pork or beef stew, with tried hominy, bread, butter, coffee. Dinner: roast beel, stewed beans or spinacli or new beets, potatoes, bread, coffee. Supper: cold beets or cucumbers, or catsup, bread, butter, tea. corned beef or pigs' tongues or pickled tripe, pickled Thursday. Breakfast: sugar-cured shoulders, potatoes, bread, butter, coffee. Dinner: roast beef, succotash or dried peas, new cucumbers in season, ap |