52 METAMORPHOSES OF MAN 



CHAPTER VII.* 



METAMORPHOSIS PROPERLY SO CALLED METAMORPHOSES 



OF BUTTERFLIES. 



We have seen elsewhere that the germ of viviparous 

 animals prior to rupturing its envelopes and leaving* 

 the mother's womb, is converted into an animal ca- 

 pable of leading an independent existence. All ovi- 

 parous animals present, in the main, a similar state of 

 things. The observations which have been published 

 up to this, lead us to believe that a blastoderm, formed 

 on the surface of the yolk, is the starting-point of the 

 organism ; and that the latter, assuming several trans- 

 itory forms, and becoming more and more complex, 

 undergoes, in the course of its egg-development, a 

 series of successive alterations affecting the entire or- 

 ganism, as well as the structures which it comprises. 



But, from the period of hatching, the newly-born 

 animals constitute two distinct groups. The first have 

 all the parental features ; the second do not resemble 

 their parents in any way. In producing the primary 

 type, the first have only to increase in size, and 

 undergo the modifications that we saw in the case 

 of mammalia and man; the second, on the contrary, 

 have to be completely altered. The latter, having 

 undergone their transformations in the egg, must 

 undergo their metamorphoses after they have left it. 



For the sake of clearness, and for the purpose of 



