60 SUPPLEMENT ON 



able attention the mode of decomposition in organized beings. 

 Beholding the almost sudden appearance of destructive 

 insects, and of larvae, or as they termed them, worms, 

 in carcasses, they regarded them as the product of cor- 

 ruption. It is not two centuries since Redi proved, by 

 conclusive experiments, that the worms were deposited there 

 by flies and other winged insects, and that the latter were 

 attracted by what was named instinct, on the bodies in a 

 state of decomposition. This is what is now observed every 

 day. 



" It is thus that we behold insects arriving from all quar- 

 ters, on the residue of aliments, which have been submitted 

 to the digestive action. They raise these substances, per- 

 forate them, cause them to present a greater surface to humi- 

 dity, to dryness, to dissolution, by dispersing or extending 

 them over a greater space — such is the occupation of numer- 

 ous species, that seem principally summoned to the attack 

 and destruction of organic animal matter deprived of life. 



" To these insects the organ of smell has been denied, but 

 they have been supposed to be gifted with a sight so pierc- 

 ing as to supply the place of it. This opinion, however, 

 has been combated, and an opposite one supported with 

 success from experience and observation, 



" Certain flowers have a fetid and cadaverous odour, so 

 striking, that at the time when they are full-blown, a great 

 number of insects are observed to seek them, insects which 

 ordinarily live in animal substances in a putrid state. It is 

 thus that the spathes of the snake-root, the coroUae of the varie- 

 gated stapelia, are often covered or filled with sylphs, beetles, 

 the meat-fly, and other insects, which come not only in the 

 hope of finding their food, but even for the purpose of depo- 

 siting their eggs. Is it possible to resist this evidence, and 

 not to perceive that, at first, these insects have been deceived 

 by their organs of vision ; that, afterwards, those of smell 



