STATES OF INSECTS, €l 



further the chrysalis, and lastly the butterfly— what is 

 this but an animal stem — an elongation perfectly similar 

 to that of the plant issuing from the seed to attain its 

 blossoming and propagation ? a 



There being, therefore, this general analogy in their 

 progress to that state in which they can continue their 

 species between every part of animated nature, it holds 

 good, I think, that the same analogy should take place 

 in their developments. If the adult man or quadruped, 

 &c. is evidently an evolution of the foetus, as from mi- 

 croscopical observations it appears that they are b , if the 

 teeth, horns, and other parts, &c. to be acquired in his 

 progress to that state are already in him in their embryos, 

 we may also conclude that the butterfly and its organs, 

 &c. are all in the newly-hatched caterpillar. Again, if the 

 blossom and its envelopes are contained in the gemma, the 

 bulb, &c. where they have been discovered c , it follows 

 analogically that the butterfly and its integuments all 

 preexist in its forerunner* 



Perhaps after this view of the objections to Dr. He- 

 rold's hypothesis, it will not be necessary to say much 

 with regard to the argument he draws from the change 

 of organs— the loss of some and the acquisition of others 

 — since this may readily be conceived to be the natural 

 consequence of the vital forces tending more and more 

 to the formation of the butterfly, and the withdrawing 

 of their action more and more from the caterpillar ; I 

 shall not, therefore, enter further into the question, espe- 



a N. Diet, d'Hist. Nat. xx. 355. 



b Leeuwenhoek discovered in the incipient foetus of a sheep, not 

 larger than the eighth part of a pea, all the principal parts of the 

 future animal. Arc. Nat. I. ii. 165, 173. 



c Bonnet, CEuvr. v. 284. 



