The swallow-tail 

 butterfly laying 

 her creamy-white 

 eggs on the anise 



The beautiful eggs 

 of the swallow- 

 tail butterfly as re- 

 vealed by the film 



Popular Science Monthly 



screen, two eggs are shown, bombarded by millions 

 of spermatozoa. The fact that the fertilization 

 of an animal egg is fundamentally the same 

 process as that previously witnessed in the plant, 

 drives home the essential similarity of the 

 reproductive processes in the animal and 

 vegetable kingdom. In every case fertilization 

 consists in the fusion of two specially organized 

 cells. After fertilization, the cell resulting from 

 the union proceeds to divide into many cells, 

 which finally colonize into what is then an embr\o. 



From Egg to Golden-Winged Butterfly 



Full of dramatic interest is that section of the 

 film which depicts the life history of a butterfly — 

 one of the "swallow-tail" variety famous for the 

 yellow and black of its body and its "eye spots" of 

 red and blue. A mother swallow-tail is shown on 

 the screen laying her beautiful creamy-white eggs 

 on the sweet anise. Four days later — on the screen 

 only a minute later — a small black caterpillar 

 emerges from one of the eggs. It feeds. In order 

 to grow, it sheds its skin and emerges with a new 

 and more beautiful one. Another period of feeding 

 inter\-enes. Xow it is revealed spinning a silken 

 lopp and attaching itself to a firm support. Then 

 the mar\-elous process of skin-shedding is un- 

 folded. A chr\-salis has been formed. For many 

 months this hangs motionless. Then, as the film 

 unreels, it suddenly shows signs of life. At the 

 end of two days — a few seconds on the screen — it 

 bursts open and releases a limp, curious insect 

 with crumpled wings. This is the new butterfly. 



So, other life processes are explained — those of 

 the frog, the chicken, the rat. When the last foot 

 of film has flickered past, you come away with the 

 feeling that man himself is mysteriously linked 

 with that simple protozoan which you saw in the 

 beginning, and that the process of growth and 

 development is the same in all the living universe. 



91 



A dramatic moment as the film unreels is that when 

 the butterfly struggles out of the chrysalis. It has 

 passed through many stages since the egg was laid, 

 but now its limp wings expand and it soars away 



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h. 



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Portion of the film 

 showing the cater- 

 pillar stage of the 

 butterfly's life 



The butterfly flits 

 joyously away after 

 having emerged 

 from the chrysalis 



