REMARKS UPON METAMORPHOSIS. QT7 
are straining the lock, or have got the wrong key. 
If the first proposition just mentioned be correct, 
the logical inference will be, that those insects which 
exhibit the most distinct and striking transform- 
ations are consequently the most typical of all the 
annulose animals; and that, in proportion as the 
metamorphosis of the rest is more or less perfect, so 
are the orders containing them removed from the typi- 
cal pre-eminence. So far, however, from attempt- 
ing, at the very onset, to demonstrate the truth of this 
proposition, by pointing out the most typical order 
of the Annulosa, Mr. M‘Leay candidly confesses 
his inability so to do; thus failing to establish his 
theory, in that particular instance where its demon- 
stration is most essential. This oversight, we trust 
to make it subsequently appear, has entirely arisen 
from his not following up the theoretical deduction 
he had come to on the value of metamorphosis: for, 
instead of founding his primary divisions upon it, 
he unfortunately adopted those of Clairville, taken 
from the mode of imbibing their food, and hence 
named Mandibulata and Haustellata ; thus, in fact, 
virtually denying the truth of the proposition 
assumed, and making the mode of taking food, — 
not metamorphosis,—the grand character upon 
which the primary divisions of the Pétlota repose. 
So acute an observer could not, however, fail to 
perceive the numberless difficulties which this error 
produced in his details; and prompted by his love of 
truth and nature, he makes no scruple to confess 
them on many occasions: nay, he candidly admits 
that he has not yet discovered the natural arrange- 
ment of the annulose circle, although every one 
T 3 
