119 
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN INSECT EMBRYOGENY. 
By HENRY FRIPP, M.D, 
Lecturer on Physiology in the Bristol Medical School. 
Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit 
Oontinuo boc mors est illius quod fuit ante. 
For what from its own confines changed doth pass 
Is straight the death of what before it was. 
T HE audacious simplicity of Topsy, who, unconscious of 
parentage, promptly seized upon the on]y plausible expla- 
nation of her existence that presented itself, has excited hearty 
laughter from many a reader of “ Uncle Tom.” But, though 
more experienced in catechisms than rude and ignorant Topsy, 
the most accomplished young lady might well have failed to 
answer so perplexing a question of origin with equal astuteness 
and confidence. In fact, the profound philosophy which lurks 
beneath Topsy’s intuition, that not having been u born” she 
must have “growed,” does not appear to have met with due 
acknowledgment. No logician could have extricated himself 
better from a dilemma forced upon him by false premises. No 
zoologist could have more scientifically evaded a question he 
was not prepared to solve. No professor of physiology could 
have more deftly sheltered himself in the chaos of confused 
notions that hangs cloud-like over the boundary lines that sepa- 
rate the phenomena of growth from those of reproduction ! 
Nor is poor Topsy singular in her preference of a ready-made 
faith, which shuts out every doubt, over an hypothesis which 
might engender uncomfortable suspicions of ignorance. The 
world in general does not willingly unsettle itself in matters of 
fact and opinion, or show itself anxious to reopen questions 
assumed to have been definite^ settled, though this seeming 
stability of fact and opinion may be rather due to the exhaustion 
of disputants, and the repose which follows temporary conces- 
sions, or perhaps to momentary indifference and disinclination 
to force an argument to its logical conclusion, for which a slow 
moving public opinion may not be prepared. 
And yet nothing is more certain than that, during the same 
YOL. VI. NO. XXIII. L 
