1 60 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS. 
pattern of the touched part in all its beauty. Now by 
touching with the charged finger-end a strip of glass, and 
placing this latter beneath a microscope, we discover an 
extraordinary specimen of the Divine handiwork. Hun- 
dreds of objects are left adhering to the glass plate, which 
we know not whether to call scales or feathers. They dis- 
play considerable variety of form, but the most common 
is oval, or semi-oval, with a little projecting stem or quill 
at one end. They are thin and flat, transparent and mem- 
branous in texture, with several ribs running lengthwise, 
the points of which project beyond the end of the scale. 
These scales, then, produce the beautiful party-coloured 
patterns of a Butterfly’s wing ; but of positive colour 
they possess individually no trace under the microscope, 
save a dull smoky appearance. It is by the separation 
and reflection of the prismatic hues that they appear beau- 
tiful, but by what law some reflect none but red, some 
none but yellow, some none but blue rays, we know not. 
On examining the wing that has been denuded of its 
coloured scales, wo see a transparent, dry, brittle mem- 
brane, pitted with innumerable punctures arranged in 
lines ; these are the depressions in which the stems of the 
scales were originally planted. They were so ordered that 
the extremity of one scale reposed on the base of its suc- 
cessor, overlapping and concealing its stem, so that the 
arrangement resembled that of tiles or slates on a roof. 
We have said they are innumerable ; the expression is 
not literally exact, but you will think it excusable when 
you hear that Leeuwenhoek computed the number of 
scales on a Silkworm Moth ( Bonibyx morf), to exceed 
400,000 ; and those which bespangle the wings of the 
