126 METAMOEPHOSES OP MAN 



perceive tliat tlie primitive individuality of the germ 

 is lost, and is replaced by a series of new indi- 

 vidualities ere the products of this germ reach their 

 final condition. 



We are now entering upon a world where the most 

 fundamental laws of the animal kingdom appear as it 

 were reversed. The reader, however, will, I trust, be 

 enabled to conclude that there are no real contradic- 

 tions, and that even in cases so apparently exceptional, 

 creative nature displays a wonderful regularity. 



In approaching this portion of my task, I feel how 

 great the difficulties are which encompass both my 

 readers and myself. Even without having taken out 

 a course of lectures on anatomy, every one has a vague 

 notion of the position of the heart, lungs, stomach, and 

 liver of mammalia : the external characters of these 

 animals are at all events familiar to all. To speak of 

 their transformations is to lead even an enlightened 

 man to a class of ideas and facts with which he is 

 doubtless little familiar, but where he meets at least 

 some points with which he is acquainted. In regard 

 to metamorphoses, properly so called, the Lepidoptera 

 afforded us a sort of type to which we could refer not 

 only the history of other insects, but even in most 

 cases that of Annulosa in general, of Mollusca and 

 Batrachia. In their different groups, too, the various 

 species to which it was necessary to allude are more 

 or less known to every person. 



Now, on the contrary, I am about to treat of beings 

 whose form and organization have been studied by 

 naturalists only. The names of the animals will be 

 new, and many of them will seem rude and barbarous. 

 I shall now be obliged to demonstrate everything, for 



