116 METAMORPHOSES OE MAK 



present certain larval characters in their perfect 

 state — suck, for example, as the mulberry bombyx 

 (Bombyx mori), mentioned by Majoli, whose thorax and 

 abdomen were those of the silkworm ; and especially 

 the insect described by J. F. Muller, whose entire 

 body was that of a butterfly, with the addition of a 

 caterpillar's head. In this instance the arrest of 

 development occurred evidently as the animal was 

 passing from the larval to the higher condition.* 



We see, therefore, that the larva, nymph, and per- 

 fect insect are but one animal, in the same way as the 

 embryo, foetus, and young mammal are but so many 

 stages of the one individual. Reaumur imagined that 

 the larva and the insect were two distinct beings, 

 and that the first inclosed and supported the second, 

 somewhat in the same manner as the mother carries 

 and supports the foetus in utero. This distinguished 

 observer brought forward the results of both Swam- 

 merdam's and his own researches in support of this 

 theory. "If," said he, "you open a caterpillar's 

 skin two or three days before it is converted into a 

 chrysalis, you will perceive the wings, antennae, and 

 proboscis of the butterfly; and if you cut off one of 

 this caterpillar's scaly feet, the butterfly will be lame." 



These facts are, as we said before, quite correct; 

 but where Reaumur has seen evidence in support of 

 the evolution theory, we have found proof of that 

 doctrine of epigenesis which we have seen fully con- 

 firmed by the development of mammalia. Reaumur, 



* The above examples of insect monstrosities may be found in 

 either Isidore Geonroy Saint-Hilaire's " L'Histoire des Anomalies 

 de l'Organisation," or M. Lacordaire's " L'Introduction a l'Entomo- 

 logie." 



