STATES OF INSECTS. (Lgg.) 59 
mortal career. So we see that in fact man and other 
mammalia, though they do not simultaneously cast their 
skins like the insect ; or pass into a state of intermediate 
repose, before they attain the perfection of their nature, 
like the caterpillar; have their three states, in each of 
which they acquire new parts, powers, and appetites. 
But a more striking analogy has been traced between 
the insects that undergo a complete metamorphosis and 
the vegetable kingdom ; for though the primary analogy 
seems to be between the Polypus and the Plant, yet the 
secondary one with the Jnsect is not by any means remote. 
There are circumstances to which I shall have occasion 
hereafter to call your attention, which afford some ground 
for supposing, that the substance of the insect and the 
vegetable partakes of the same nature, at least approxi- 
mates more nearly, than that of the insect and the verte- 
brate animal ; and every one who has observed these little 
creatures with any attention, will have observed amongst 
them forms and organs borrowed as it were from the 
kingdom of Flora; and vice versé the botanist, if he 
makes the comparison, will find amongst his favourite 
tribes many striking resemblances of certain insects. 
But the analogy does not stop here; for the butterfly 
and the plant appear to have been created with a parti- 
cular reference to each other, both in the epoch of their 
_ appearance and the changes that take place in them. 
Thus, as Dr. Virey has observed, the caterpillar is si- 
multaneous with the leaf of the tree or plant on which it 
feeds, and the butterfly with the flowers of which it im- 
bibes the nectar*. Swammerdam, I believe, was the first 
who noticed the analogy between the changes of the in- 
2 N. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xx. 348. 
