pebrine (pebrin)

[F. pebrine (see def.).] An epizoötic and zymotic disease of the silkworm of commerce, evidenced outwardly by dwindling and inequality in size, and by black spots like burns. Inside, the body is filled with minute ovoid corpuscles ( Microsporidiæ ), upon the presence and multiplication of which the disease depends. Pebrine is both contagious and infectious. The Pasteur system of selection consists in the microscopic examination of the moth after egg-laying, and the rejection of eggs laid by those found to be diseased. The microbe which causes pebrine was named by Lebert Pan his to phyton, and cla ed among the psorosperms. [Formerly also