REMARKS UPON METAMORPHOSIS. 277 



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 Ptilota 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 



