48 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



credible numbers of eggs. Above 36,000 have been 

 counted in a herring; 38,000 in a smelt; 1,000,000 

 in a sole; 1,130,000 in a roach; 3,000,000 in a spe- 

 cies of sturgeon; 342,000 in a carp; 383,000 in a 

 tench; 546,000 in a mackerel; 992,000 in a perch; 

 and 1 ,357,000 in a flounder. But of all fishes hither- 

 to discovered, the cod seems the most fertile. One 

 naturalist computes that it produces more than 

 3,686,000 eggs; another 9,000,000; and a third 

 9,444,000, Here, then, are eleven fishes, which 

 probably, in the course of one season, will produce 

 above thirteen millions of eggs; which is a number so 

 astonishing and immense, that, without demonstration, 

 we could never believe it true.'* 



The fecundity of insects is no less remarkable than 

 that of fishes. In some instances, particularly in those 

 already mentioned, the numbers produced from the 

 eggs of a single female, far exceed the progeny of any 

 other class of animals. It is this extraordinary fecun- 

 dity which, under favourable circumstances, produces 

 countless swarms of insects that give origin to the 

 opinion of their being spontaneously generated by 

 putrefaction, or brought in some mysterious way by 

 blighting winds. The numerous accidents, however, 

 to which insects are exposed from the deposition of 

 the egg till their final transformation, tend to keep their 

 numbers from becoming excessive, or to reduce them 

 when they are at any time more than commonly nume- 

 rous. 



* Introd. Observ. to Spallanzani, xiv. 



