Research activities during the report period (October 1, 1983 to December 31, 1983) involved the following: (1) selection of a base material suitable for all chemical and physical tests, (2) measurement of the tensile characteristics of thermally aged silk, and (3) establishing experimental conditions for determining the amino group content of artificially aged silk. A summary of the research results is given in Section IIA. Ancillary activities carried out during the quarter are described in Section IIB.