THE WATER CABINET. 115 
possession of one or two pairs of wings gives them their 
prominent characteristic to the eye, but it is the successive 
metamorphoses that arrests universal attention, and calls 
forth the admiration and wonder of mankind. In the 
progress of an insect from the minute egg to its com- 
pleted form, we see the most remarkable series of develop- 
ments which animal life ever displays in all its endless 
procession of forms—the egg, the worm, the chrysalis, 
the fly—a strange unfolding, for the first time accurately 
observed by Swammerdam, who detected, under the 
wrinkled skin of the disgusting worm, the complete out- 
line of the lovely butterfly. 
This metempsychosis may be studied in its several 
strange details by the aid of the Water-Cabinet. The 
first condition of the newly-hatched egg is that known as 
the grub, or caterpillar—scientifically called the larva. 
The larva generally bears no earthly resemblance to the 
imago, or perfect insect, into which it is to be hereafter 
developed, but leads a life of sensual enjoyment—it eats, 
eats! it is gluttony concentrated in type and act. It 
changes its skin several times, slips one coat off and 
acquires a new; growing, and eating, and changing gar- 
ments, till, like man himself, it seeks a temporary tomb, 
from which it is to soar to the skies like a soul liberated. 
This second form is popularly known as the chrysalis, or 
aurelia, scientifically called the pupa. In this form the 
insect remains in a state of complete or partial torpidity 
for a few days, weeks, or months, according to the par- 
ticular species. 
The day of its deliverance arrives, its bonds burst, and 
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