CHAPTER V 



THE TESTIMONY OF THE INSECT 



To consider the insect attentively is to be convinced of 

 the emptiness of ancient and modern theories on the 

 creation or the evolution of species. 



The insect, appearing in the first ages of terrestrial 

 life, and showing in all cases the essential stability of 

 its species once they have appeared, bears strong testi- 

 mony against the concept of continuous transformations 

 by innumerable slow variations. 



The chasm which separates the perfect insect from 

 its larva an abyss in which the Darwinian and 

 Lamarckian theories are hopelessly lost is testimony 

 against its evolution by the classical factors of selection 

 and adaptation. The disconcerting and marvellous 

 spectacle of its primary instincts, which those factors 

 are powerless to explain, is another argument against 

 them. 



The radical, and (so to speak) spontaneous trans- 

 formations in a closed chrysalis almost isolated from 

 the action of external agencies, is opposed to the concept 

 of evolution by such agencies. 



The transformations and metamorphoses, and the 

 progressive or regressive changes of its larval existence 

 are equally opposed to the concept of a continuous and 

 uninterrupted evolution by functional assimilation. 



Yet more opposed to these is the amazing pheno- 

 menon of histolysis 1 in the chrysalis, by which most 

 of its organs are reduced to an amorphous emulsion, 

 preparatory to the coming transformation. 



1 Histolysis. Gr. lo-rfa = tissue, \fou = solution; the solution of tissue. 



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