122 METAMOKPHOSES OF MAN 



skin, or carapace, as the case may be, is cast aside 

 as a useless covering; but this is because of its 

 inflexible nature, owing to the horny and inorganic 

 matter it contains preventing the growth of the 

 animal. Look into the interior of these beings. 

 With Swammerdam, Reaumur, Herold, and Newport 

 as your guides, follow the series of important changes 

 which the central organs undergo, and you will see 

 that the phenomenon of molecular absorption is present 

 in these creatures also. 



Here is a striking example, in addition to those we 

 have already cited. The larva, prior to becoming a 

 chrysalis, stores up, so to speak, the materials requisite 

 for its transformations. Its organs are almost em- 

 bedded in a peculiar fatty tissue. If, however, you 

 examine the perfect insect, you will not find a trace of 

 this substance. It has been nearly all employed in 

 repairing the organs ; and as matter cannot be acted 

 on by the vital force without the production of a 

 certain amount of waste, the intestine (which was 

 empty at the commencement of metamorphosis) is 

 found, when the crisis is over, charged with a quantity 

 of excrementitious matter which was then formed.* 



We see, then, that the study of metamorphosis^ 

 like that of transformation, carries us forcibly to the 

 point from which we started. We can understand 

 neither one nor the other, unless we admit the exist- 

 ence of a force inherent in all living organisms, ever 



* In certain lepidoptera this matter is of a reddish colour. 

 The insect discharges it as it leaves the cocoon, and the spots which 

 are thus left upon walls, stones, branches, etc., in the neighbour- 

 hood, are often sufficiently numerous to give rise to the supposition 

 that there has been a shower of blood. 



