32 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. II. 



rily that of their first existence, or that their gradual 

 appearance is a sound argument against their pre- 

 existence and co-existence as germes. 



Now, as we have already seen in the preceding 

 chapter, the experiments of Swammerdam and 

 Reaumur clearly demonstrate that by a certain pro- 

 cess the organs of the butterfly may be rendered 

 visible in the caterpillar, the most decisive evidence 

 of this fact being the circumstance recorded by 

 Reaumur, that he discovered the eggs of a butterfly 

 at least eight or ten days before its period of assu- 

 ming the pupa state ; and the same author likewise 

 discovered that the rudimentary organs of a butterfly 

 while in the caterpillar state are not arranged in the 

 same position as in the chrysalis, the antennae, in- 

 stead of being laid flat along the breast, being curled 

 like the horn of a ram, and the tongue, instead of 

 being also laid along the breast as in the chrysalis, 



or folded spirally and perpendicularly as in the but- 

 terfly, being laid flat, but in a spiral direction, beneath 

 the head. 



It would be interesting, observes Reaumur, to 

 ascertain all the intimate communications ("com- 

 munications") existing between the caterpillar and 

 ■^he enclosed butterfly, but the delicacy of the va- 

 rious parts must ever prevent our attaining this 

 "knowledge. In order, however, to discover as far 

 as possible in what manner the organs of the but- 

 terfly are connected with those of the caterpillar, 

 this author selected a caterpillar ready to change 

 into chrysalis, the skin of which was already slit 

 down the back, and cut off" more than half of the 

 three anterior scaly legs on one side ; the chrysalis 

 was subsequently discovered to have the corre- 

 sponding legs shorter than those on the other side. 



