184 
OF INSECTS. 
cite admiration. But it it enough for our purpose to ob¬ 
serve in general, the suitableness of the structure to the 
use, of the means to the end, and especially the wisdom 
by which nature has departed from its most general anal¬ 
ogy (for animals being furnished with moutns are such,) 
when the purpose could be better answered by the devia¬ 
tion. 
In some insects, the proboscis, or tongue, or trunk, is 
shut up in a sharp-pointed sheath, which sheath, being of 
a much firmer texture than the proboscis itself, as well as 
sharpened at the point, pierces the substance which con¬ 
tains the food, and then opens within the wound , to allow 
the enclosed tube, through which the juice is extracted, to 
perform its office. Can any mechanism be plainer than 
this is; or surpass this? 
V. The metamorphosis of insects from grubs into moths 
and flies, is an astonishing process. A hairy caterpillar 
is transformed into a butterfly. Observe the change. We 
have four beautiful wings, where there were none before; 
a tubular proboscis, in the place of a mouth with jaws and 
teeth; six long legs, instead of fourteen feet. In another 
case, we see a white, smooth, soft worm, turned into a 
black, hard, crustaceous beetle, with gauze wings. These, 
as I said, are astonishing processes, and must require, as 
it should seem, a proportionably artificial apparatus. The 
hypothesis which appears to me most probable is, that, in 
the grub, there exist at the same time three animals, one 
within another, all nourished by the same digestion, and 
by a communicating circulation; but in different stages of 
maturity. The latest discoveries made by naturalists seem 
to favour this supposition. The insect already equip¬ 
ped with wings, is descried under the membranes, both 
of the worm and nymph. In some species, the proboscis, 
the antennae, the limbs and wings of the fly, have been 
observed to be folded up within the body of the caterpillar; 
and with such nicety as to occupy a small space only under 
the two first wings. This being so, the outermost animal, 
which, besides its own proper character, serves as an integu¬ 
ment to the other two, being the farthest advanced, dies, 
as we suppose, and drops off first. The second, the pupa 
or chrysalis, then offers itself to observation. This also, 
in its turn, dies; its dead and brittle husk falls to pieces, 
and makes way for the appearance of the fly or moth. 
Now, if this be the case, or indeed whatever explication 
be adopted, we have a prospective contrivance of the most 
curious kind; we have organizations three deep , yet a vas- 
