The Anthrax 



No, I fail to understand the problem; and 

 I bequeath it to others. 



All that I can see by way of a glimpse — 

 and even then I put forward my suspicions 

 with extreme reserve — all that I am permitted 

 to surmise is reduced to this : the substance of 

 the sleeping larva as yet has no very definite 

 static existence; it is like the raw materials 

 collected for a building; it is waiting for the 

 elaboration that is to make a Bee of it. To 

 mould those shapeless lumps of the future 

 insect, the air, that prime adjuster of living 

 things, circulates among them, passing through 

 a network of ducts. To organize them, to 

 direct the placing of them, the nervous sys- 

 tem, the embryo of the animal, distributes its 

 ramifications over them. Nerve and air-duct, 

 therefore, are the essentials ; the rest is so much 

 material in reserve for the process of the 

 metamorphosis. As long as that material is 

 not employed, as long as it has not acquired 

 its final equilibrium, it can grow less and less; 

 and life, though languishing, will continue all 

 the same on the express condition that the 

 respiratory organs and the nervous filaments 

 be respected. It is as it were the flame of the 

 lamp, which, whether full or empty, con- 

 tinues to give light so long as the wick is 



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