36 Proceedings of the 



changed, except by passing through the dormant chrysalid 

 state. To make this plainer to non-entomological readers, I 

 should observe, that the process by which the caterpillar, in 

 passing through the chrysalid state, is changed into the per- 

 fect insect, is not, as Kirby and Spence supposed, by all the 

 subsequent forms being originally included under the skin of 

 the larva, and that every successive operation was merely 

 casting off an old coat, to appear, like the riders in a circus, 

 in another one under it ; but the process, as shown by the 

 accurate observations of Herold on the changes and develop- 

 ment of the organs during the pupa state, is, " like the ori- 

 ginal processes of the development of the larva itself, the 

 results of a transmutation, increase, and coalescence of primitive 

 elements of the different tissues, — elements which consist of 

 nucleated cells or nuclei, like those that result from the spon- 

 taneous fissions of the primary impregnated germ-cell, — ele- 

 ments which may be viewed as parts of the original germ-mass, 

 retained to be successively metamorphosed into the successive 

 larval skins, pupa skins, and imago."* 



To give a more familiar illustration of this transmutation, 

 &c, I may adduce an experiment familiar to most entomolo- 

 gists. Take a newly-formed chrysalis, break it in two, and we 

 find the muscular fibre, &c, not much changed from that of 

 the larva. Take it somewhat older, and break it, we find it 

 full of a liquid like milk. The old fibre has been disintegrated 

 before it can be made into the new form. Break a chrysalis at 

 a more advanced period, and we find no longer this milky sub- 

 stance, but the form, figure, and organs of the perfect insect 

 already stamped, and ready to appear at the proper season. 

 It is like a paper manufactory, — the new paper cannot be 

 made until the old rags are reduced into a pulp. 



This transformation through the chrysalis, then, being the 

 sole analogy which we have to argue from, I cannot conceive 

 how we can evade the necessity of the egg-larva of the orthop- 

 teran also passing through a dormant chrysalid state, in 

 which the disintegration and transmutation of the larva may 

 take place. But if the jointed-legged insect be the pupa or 



*■ Owen's Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy of Invertebrate Animals, 

 p. 434, Edition 1855. 



