106 HIDDEN WONDERS. 



being, in fact, the insect's liver. There is a large 

 mass of these biliary vessels, and they are found so 

 closely entwined among each other, and so encircled 

 with the air tubes, that to separate them is no 

 easy matter. Their microscopic structure is curious, 

 and will repay a careful examination. 



In examining the creature for the first time, the 

 dissector will be tolerably sure to damage the organs 

 and unfit it for preservation, and therefore it is best 

 to take such a course for granted, and to make the 

 best of it. 



Removing all these vital organs, he should then 

 examine the wonderful and most complicated mus- 

 cular structure, by which the caterpillar is enabled 

 to lengthen, shorten, twist, and bend its body in al- 

 most any direction, and that with such power that 

 many caterpillars are enabled to stretch themselves 

 horizontally into the air, and there to keep themselves 

 motionless for hours together. 



FeW people have any idea of the wonders that 

 they will find inside even so lowly a creature as a 

 caterpillar — wonders, too, that only increase in num- 

 ber and beauty the more closely they are examined. 

 When the outer form has been carefully made out, 

 there yet remains the microscopical view, and after 

 that the chemical, in either of which lie hidden in- 

 numerable treasures. 



A very forcible and unsophisticated opinion was 

 once expressed to me, after I had dissected and 



