AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. Ill 



Harvey stated, genuine ova, included one within the 

 other. Curious ova, certainly, possessing limbs, a 

 mouth, and digestive apparatus, which are destined 

 for the locomotion, defence, and nutrition of the real 

 animal : eggs, which chew, grind, and digest food as 

 the mother does that which supplies the fetus. Thus 

 protected, and nourished by the animal apparatus 

 which surrounds it, the butterfly exhibits no outward 

 traces of infancy; when the proper time arrives, it 

 throws off this organized garb, which is no longer 

 required, and would, in fact, inconvenience it, and, 

 devoid of all disguise, it now exhibits itself in its real 

 character, being only altered as to its size, which is 

 greater than before.* These are some of the inex- 

 tricable difficulties into which the supporters of the 

 evolution theory were led, despite their high character 

 for intelligence. 



Notwithstanding the errors which these precon- 

 ceived ideas gave rise to, Reaumur perceived and 

 appreciated a very important fact. He looked upon 

 the butterfly in the caterpillar state as an infant. He 

 should have said an embryo. The infant in being 

 converted into an adult is only increased in size and 

 developed; but the caterpillar has quite a different 

 part to play in assuming the butterfly form. In the 

 metamorphoses it undergoes in approaching its perfect 

 state, we are reminded of the embryogenic pheno- 

 mena we spoke of in an earlier chapter. We see 

 them during the entire larval stage, for the caterpillar 

 possesses many of these temporary organs, whose 



* " Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire des Xnsectes." These 

 views are very distinctly stated in the eighth memoir of vol. i. ; I 

 have almost transcribed the author's own remarks. 



