BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 209, 3 September 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

*% J y - 5 A DRY SUBJECT? »•' I I •U;.' 1 ■ COLDS AND THEIR COMPENSATIONS. _____________ Dear Boys,— ; A most delightful book of natural history of the world was the only compensation I received for having a severe cold, which necessitated spending a v/eek-end in bed. My idle turning of the pages soon ceased and I became engrossed in some of the most interesting tales it has yet been my pleasure to read. The average person becomes astounded to learn that baby 'possums are but an inch in length, and that Mrs. 'Possum often has a family of thirteen to look after. Oh, yes, natural history is full of interest for all, even though one may have been in the habit of associating it with learned professors, who are usually misrepresented as bewhiskered and bespectacled old-men. Just why men of great learning should study these subjects, and how their learning can easily decide the fate of a nation, or even the world, is best illustrated by the following story:— For thousands of years silk has been an abundant industry in China. From China silk moth eggs were stolen by two Persian monks nearly 1500 years ago and brought hidden in hollow bamboos to Europe. From that small stock descended all the silkworm's which, century after century, spun the silk that made France and Italy famous all over the earth for their products from this delightful material. During the second part of the nineteenth century disease attacked the European stocks of silk moths. One of the most important of the industries of two great nations was threatened, and a despairing call was made to that great genius, Louis Pasteur, to check the malady. He had never seen a cocoon and knew nothing of the life story of the insect. But, nothing doubting, he went to Henri Fabre and asked to see the cocoon which he understood the caterpillars formed. Fabre handed Kim one. Pasteur shook it near his ear and said with surprise, "Why it makes a noise; there's something inside." Fabre explained - that it was the chrysalis, and Pasteur asked what he meant. "I mean the sort of mummy into which the caterpillar changes before becoming a moth," answered the famous old naturalist. "And has every cocoon a chrysalis inside it?" asked the astonished scientist. "Obviously," replied Fabre, "it is to protect the chrysalis that the caterpillar spins its cocoons." "Really," said the great man, humbly. From that time the modest Pasteur studied and toiled, mastered his subject and stamped out the disease which had baffled Fabre and all other - naturalists; and so he saved France /"/ 1 . a<> i and Italy from losses resembling those - ■/, I/. J-. of a great war. ' V^Y/ A dry subject.? No, I do not f think so.