378 
LinruBan Society. 
traced the Natural History of Meloe in the preceding memoirs, he 
now proposed to examine its Anatomy “ with reference to those 
principles w'hich regulate the formation of animal bodies, and which 
seem to be the links of connexion that associate peculiarities of in- 
stinct with the evolution and with the functions of special struc- 
tures.” 
The portion read was the first section of the third memoir, the 
tegument of the young larva. This structure w’as shown to be the 
primary and essential foundation-tissue of the organized being, having 
its origin in the blastoderma, and being composed entirely of cells, 
like the young tissue of plants. The form of the body of the em- 
bryo entirely depends on the changes w'hich take place in this struc- 
ture, and the principles which regulate these changes regulate also 
those of the whole life of the insect. 
The growth of the tegument of the young larva Mr. New^port 
showed to depend on the division of the nuclei of its cells ; that 
the subsequent consolidation of the tegument in the formation of 
the hardened dermo-skeleton of the insect is the result of the secre- 
tion of earthy materials by the nuclei of the tegumentary cells, in a 
manner similar to that in which bone is formed in the Vertebrata, by 
the calcification of the cells in layers of the surface of the peri- 
osteum, as shown by Hunter, Flourens, Goodsir, Sharpey, Tomes 
and others ; and that this is analogous to the mode in which the 
w'oody fibre of exogenous trees is formed on the inner surface of 
their bark. The earthy constituents of the dermo-skeleton were 
stated, from the chemical analyses of Odier, Lassaigne and Mr. Chil- 
dren, to consist chiefly of phosphate of lime, with carbonates of potass 
and lime, and a little phosphate of iron, and in some species with 
traces of silica, magnesia and manganese ; materials which, ten years 
ago, led Mr. Newport to describe the dermo-skeleton of insects as 
“ an imperfectly-developed condition of bony matter,” a view which 
has recently been much su])ported by the discovery by Platner of 
star-shaped corpuscles in the tegument of the silkworm, closely re- 
sembling those of true bone in the Vertebrata. 
The tegument of insects is thus regarded as analogous in its mode 
of development, as in its function, to that of the skeleton of the Che- 
lonian Reptiles. This structure in the very young Meloe was then 
fully described, and the nature of its appendages and functions exa- 
mined. The spines and hairs were showm to originate from the centre 
of tegumentary cells, and were regarded as excessive developments 
of the nuclei as single bodies. The growth and development of the 
tegument was shown to be effected by means of the enlargement and 
fissiparous division of the nuclei of the cells, and the subsequent ex- 
pansion of these into cells, the nuclei of which undergo similar 
changes. 'I'his was pointed out as being strongly confirmatory of 
the theory of Schwann with reference to the tissues generally, and 
as being in full accordance with the observations of Kdlliker on the 
yolk cells, and with original observations which Mr. Newport has 
liimself made on other structures. 
The formation of the external respiratory organs was then exa- 
mined. These were shown to commence in the tegument in spaces 
