The Life of the Weevil 



phosis-bladder : the fluid will become gold- 

 beater's-skin, the liquid will solidify. 



This change of condition at first suggests 

 oxidation. We must abandon this idea. 

 If the hardening were really the result of 

 oxidization, the grub, being sticky from its 

 birth and always exposed to the air, would 

 long ago have been clad not in a delicate 

 coat of adhesive, but in a stiff parchment 

 sheath. Desiccation obviously must take 

 place at the last moment and rapidly, when 

 the grub is preparing to change its shape. 

 Before then, this desiccation would be a 

 danger; now, it is an excellent means of 

 defence. 



To "fix" oil-paintings our ingenuity em- 

 ploys siccatives, that is to say, ingredients 

 that act upon the oil, giving it a resinous 

 consistency. The Cionus likewise has its 

 siccative, as the following facts prove. It 

 may be that the grub was labouring to pro- 

 duce this desiccating substance, by some pro- 

 found change in the process of its organic 

 laboratory, at the time when its poor flesh 

 was quivering with feverish tremors; it may 

 be that it was proceeding to spread the sic- 

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