The Life of the Caterpillar 



a form of vitality reduced to its simplest ex- 

 pression. Taken all around, very nearly no- 

 thing. The rest of the contents is a mass of 

 eggs, an agglomeration of germs numbering 

 close upon three hundred. In a word, the 

 insect is one enormous ovary, assisted by just 

 so much as enables it to perform its functions. 



