154 EXPERIMENTS ON INSECT LIFE. 



can abbreviate instead of prolonging the term of existence. 

 Enclosing his chrysalides in the interior of a glass egg, 

 Reaumur called in the assistance of a brooding hen to hatch 

 the butterflies he willed into a prematurity of perfect form, 

 some of which appeared, accordingly, in four, instead of four- 

 teen, days. Others, in a similar state, being placed in a hot- 

 house, were forced to expand amidst the snows of January 

 the wings which, in the course of nature, would have fanned 

 the flowers of May; and the life of the perfect insects re- 

 maining the same, the sum total of their existence was, of 

 course, proportion ably shortened. It is observed by Kirby 

 and Spence, with reference to these experiments, that Para- 

 celsus would, on this discovers, have renewed his search after 



9 u s 



the elixir of immortality ; and Reaumur himself appeared to 

 view, as something a little more substantial than mere chimera, 

 its possible application to mankind. He had also found that 

 by varnishing the skins of chrysalides, so as to prevent ab- 

 sorption, the appearance of the winged insect was retarded for 

 two months ; whereupon, reasoning by analogy, he supposed 

 that human existence might be lengthened in like manner by 

 the checking of perspiration, suggesting, gravely, that the 

 experiment might be tried on condemned criminals. The 

 encouragement of transpiration, by means of warm clothing 

 or other appliances, he considers, on the contrary, as likely to 

 abbreviate our natural term. 



"From experimental fact and philosophical deduction, the 



