17* 



2he naked eye. It may even be demonstrated by ..a 

 very easy experiment. If on the approach of the 

 moulting, we cut off I lie former legs of the caterpillar, 

 she will issue from her spoils without any legs at ail. 

 Tims this caterpillar, which we considered as a simple 

 and singular bein.sr, was in some measure a multiplied 

 being, or composed of several similar beings jointed into 

 each other, and that successively unfold themselves. 



). Hence arrises a very probable conjecture : may 

 not the chrysalis be lodged under the last skin the cater- 

 pillar is to cast off? May not this skin be a mask that 

 conceals it from our sight ? 



A celebrated observer has, by a decisive experiment, 

 assured himself of the truth of this conjecture : he has 

 removed the mask, and lias, by tii& means, discovered 

 the chrysalis in a manner very easy to be distinguished, 

 He has seen the six legs of this chrysalis* to grow out of 

 the six former legs of the caterpillar, and ail the other 

 members of the latter to be wrapped together under dif- 

 ferent parts of the former. 



The metamorphoses of insects, then, enter anew into 

 the order of developements, and confirm it. The 

 .chrysalis, or rather the butterfly, for it is in the strictest 

 sense but a swaddled butterfly ; the chrysalis, I say, 

 pre-existed in the caterpillar. It does no more than un- 

 fold itself in it, and the caterpillar is a kind of machine 

 prepared for ptfriorjulng afar oft' this developement. It 

 is in some icspects/Co the chrysalis, what the egg is to 

 the chick. 



10. In truth, an insect that must moult five times be- 

 fore it is invested with the form of a chrysalis, is a 

 compound of five organized bodies, enclosed within 

 each other, and nourished by common viscera, placed 

 in the centre. 



As the bud of a tree is to the invisible buds it en- 

 closes, so is the exterior part of the caterpillar newly 

 hatched to the interior bodies it conceals in its bosom* 

 four of these bodies have the same essential structure* 



