10 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



fowl (Grallatores, VIGORS) in this way acquired 

 length of legs sufficient to elevate their bodies above 

 the water in which they waded. c A proboscis,' he 

 says, e of admirable structure has thus been acquired 

 by the bee, the moth, and the humming-bird, for the 

 purpose of plundering the nectaries of flowers.'* La- 

 marck, an eminent French naturalist, recently deceas- 

 ed, adopted the same visions; and, among other illus- 

 trations of a similar cast, he tells us that the giraffe 

 acquired its long neck by its efforts to browse on the 

 high branches of trees, which, after the lapse of a few 

 thousand years, it successfully accomplished. 



Theories like the preceding all originate in the en- 

 deavours of human ingenuity to trace the operations 

 of nature farther than ascertained facts will warrant ; 

 and the necessary blanks in such a system, which 

 presupposes much that cannot be explained, are filled 

 up by the imagination. This inability to trace the 

 origin of minute plants and insects led to the doctrine 

 of what is called spontaneous or equivocal generation, 

 of which the fancies above-mentioned are some of the 

 prominent branches. The experiments of Redi on 

 the hatching of insects from eggs, which were pub- 

 lished at Florence in 1668, first brought discredit up- 

 on this doctrine, though it had always a few eminent 

 disciples. At present it is maintained by a consider- 

 able number of distinguished naturalists, such as 

 Blumenbach, Cuvier, Bory de St Vincent, R. 

 Brown, &c. c The notion of spontaneous genera- 

 tion,' says Bory, is at first revolting to a rational 

 mind, but it is, notwithstanding, demonstrable by the 

 microscope. The fact is averred: Miiller has seen 

 it, I have seen it, and twenty other observers have 

 seen it : the Pandorinia exhibit it every instant. 'f 



* Darwin's Zoonomia, sect, xxxix, 3d edit. London, 1801. 

 t Diet. Classique d'Hist. Nat., Art. Microscopiques, p, 541. 



