72 METAMORPHOSES. 



its organs indeed in an almost fluid state, but still per- 

 fect in all its parts ^. Of this fact you may convince 

 yourself without Svvammerdam's skill, by plunging into 

 vinegar or spirit of wine a caterpillar about to as- 

 sume the pupa state, and letting it remain there a 

 few days for the purpose of giving consistency to its 

 parts ; or by boiling it in water for a few minutes. A 

 very rough dissection will then enable you to detect 

 the future butterfly ; and you Mill find that the wings, 

 rolled up into a sort of cord, are lodged between the 

 first and second segment of the caterpillar ; that the 

 antennae and trunk are coiled up in front of the head ; 

 and that the legs, however diff*erent their form, are 

 actually sheathed in its legs. Malpighi discovered the 

 eggs of the future moth, in the chrysalis of a silkworm 

 only a few days old*", and Reaumur those of Boni- 

 hyx dispar even in the caterpillar, and that seven or 

 eight days before its change into the pupa*^. A cater- 

 pillar, then, may be regarded as a locomotive egg^ 

 having for its embryo the included butterfly, which 

 after a certain period assimilates to itself the animal 

 substances by which it is surrounded ; has its organs 

 gradually developed : and at length breaks through 

 the shell which incloses it. 



This explanation strips the subject of eveiy thing 

 miraculous, yet by no means reduces it to a simple or 

 uninteresting operation. Our reason is confounded 

 at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than a 

 thread, includes its own triple, or sometimes octuple, 

 teguments ; the case of a chrysalis, and a butterfly, all 

 curiously folded in each other ; with an apparatus of 



^'KUrsSarrwrn. ii, 24. t.37. f. 2. 4, ^ De Bombyce,2'd. ' Rcaiiin. i. 359. 



