ON INSECT ANATOMY. 395 



But if such applications of anatomical science be thought too 

 profound for leisure hours — if we care not to dive into the secret 

 recesses, and fix our searching gaze upon the inner nature of living 

 beings and their affections, there remains still an infinite fund of 

 instruction in studying the lighter subjects of insect anatomy. The 

 external changes which indicate the phenomena of metamorphosis 

 can nowhere be seen so clearly, and in such relation of sequence, as 

 in the insect. Por, in the higher animals, these phenomena are 

 concealed because the development to which they are related occurs in 

 the earliest phases of life, whilst in the lower animals they are 

 disconnected and lost to view by absolute separation of the individual 

 into quotient parts, which have a separate life in time, place, and 

 space. But in insect metamorphosis, the anatomical changes are 

 more striking because we can observe their sequence, and follow 

 the different phases of existence as the organism is adapted for life 

 in earth, air, or water. IS'ature here exposes her operations to 

 the eye of the naturalist, and leaves her experiments ready to his 

 hands, on his excursions, or at home, in his garden, his home, and 

 even his fireside. 



But apart from the marvellous changes of structure relating to 

 metamorphosis of insects, the actual condition of each individual, 

 whether in young or old, or any intermediate phases of its organism, 

 presents such a variety of problems of mechanical construction in 

 the adaptation of its bodily organs to the habits and external 

 surroundings of its life, as must interest any person even but 

 slightly acquainted with insect anatomy. The dermo-skeleton of 

 Articulata in general, with its various forms of leverage, jointing, 

 and modes of obtaining strength at one point, flexibility at another, 

 rigidity at a third, expansion of surface with least expenditure of 

 material and greatest saving of weight or bulk, is sufficiently striking 

 in all, but in none so remarkable as in the insect division, whose 

 wings, feet, antennae, probosces, palpi, eyes, &c., have always 

 excited attention and admiration. The transformations of this dermo- 

 skeleton — now soft and silky, now encasing head, body, and limbs, 

 in a panoply of armour, with heavily-jointed limbs and weapons of 



