84 LONDON INSECTS 



only to show that for any that have eyes and skill for 

 such things, there are ready at hand in the wild nature 

 of London materials for the deepest as well as the 

 lighter studies of Natural History. 



Anatomists who have studied the changes of insects 

 (excepting only the resurrection of the dead, of which, 

 as shown by the inscriptions in the Catacombs, they 

 have been from earliest Christian times the emblem, 

 there is nothing in the whole range of creation so 

 mysterious) have proved that, with very few exceptions, 

 there is a steady growth of all that we should call the 

 higher powers, from the egg, through the caterpillar 

 and chrysalis, to the perfect insect. The continuous 

 advance, for instance, from the caterpillar to the higher 

 intelligence of the Butterfly, as marked by the fuller 

 development of the nerves in the region of the brain, 

 may be seen very clearly in a beautiful series of ten 

 microscopic sketches, by Mr. George Newport, of the 

 nervous system of the caterpillar and chrysalis of 

 the Tortoiseshell Butterfly, republished in Professor 

 Duncan's book on the transformations of insects, in 

 which any one interested in the subject may find the 

 results of much deep research in a very attractive form. 



The female of the Vapourer Moth, and some other 

 wingless females, are among the very few exceptions as 

 yet known to this general rule of continuous develop- 

 ment. She, when she leaves the pupa state, is said to 

 be actually a less highly-organised creature than she 

 was as a caterpillar. 



The likeness of the chrysalis to a baby girl, pupa, 



