1GD 



";.Iir. tho.se of tk, ':ie same origija 



..and end. 



This sjwcies of \vonn, from ceriai >. pieces of which 

 ;i tail shoots forili hi iJ)o pat* .where a head should 

 have been pr> I, Is a very singular pheno- 



menon, ..which thi 1 frequency of it .does not permit us to 

 ..consider .ts die im-ie cilect .of chaace. !t also pro- 

 ceeds less from chance than the production of this 

 i nu , er. ry tail. It is . too well organized not to 

 have the same origin- as that which shoots forth at the 

 .?rior extremity : but we cannot pretend to say 

 what are tbe causes which here determine a tail to take 

 the place of a head: we only know, that this kind of 

 -V/orm is very much exposed to the loss of its hind 

 part; it is. therefore, in ail probability, furnished 

 , \vith more means for repairing this loss, than that of 

 . Jhe'fore part. 



3. It would seem as I: , ' (re 'hatl proposed to her- 

 self a kind of diversion in the formation of insects: 

 she has lavishly bestowed on them members and or- 

 gans, v.lrich she has distributed but spa ringly to other 

 ajiimals ; to one she gives two bimdred h j gs, to another 

 -twenty thousand eyes, to a third several hundred lungfe, 

 &c. The production of new tegs, new rings, a new 

 head, and a .new viscera, seem in these instances to be 

 attended with no greater labour or ditticulty than the 

 production of new hairs or uew' feathers. 



x She often likewise disguises the same insect, and pre- 

 sents it to us successively under such opposite forms, 

 that they seem to compose so many distinct beings : 

 this leads us to the metamorphosis of insects. 



4. We have had frequent occasion to acknowledge, 

 that the proceedings of nature are not always uniform, 



and that she can accomplish the same end by very dif- 

 ferent ways. Look at this little oblong, black, smooth, 

 and shining cone : it most resembles those coues which 

 many insects construct to-metaniorphose themselves in : 

 however, it differs from them in some essential parti- 



