The Fo Sere) Re Pst) Sy Gy S, 4 
- Let any one attentively confider thefe ac- 
cidental differences, by which the Nymphs of 
infects differ amongft themfelves; the Chry- 
falis from its Butterfly, and the other Nymphs 
from their refpective infects heretofore men- 
tioned; as alfo, thofe qualities by which the 
Nymphs agree both with their animalcules, 
and amongft themfelves ; and he will plainly per- 
ceive, that the Nymph .and Chryfalis do not 
differ in the leaft in this nature, or as to the 
interior conftitution of their parts, fince both 
diftinétly and exactly reprefent the form of 
the infect, which is to be expected from them. 
We allow this reprefentation to be more dif- 
tinct and obfervable in the Nymph, than in the 
Chryfalis; but even this depends in a great 
meafure upon the good fight and dexterity of 
the obferver. An indefatigable examiner muft 
at laft reach the deepeft myfteries of this fcience ; 
and thus an affiduous application has rendered 
it familiar to me to exhibit, in every {pecies of 
Chryfalis, all the parts of the fucceeding infect. 
But, left any oppofer fhould take it into his 
thoughts to object with the great Harvey, 
that there is in this cafe a perfect egg, which 
time may transform, and to which it may give 
limbs, we can anfwer, that we can perform 
this operation equally at different times, in the 
very inftant of the change, or in the beginning, 
as eafily as in the middle and end of it; and 
even on the very Worm, before it becomes a 
Chryfalis. There is no kind of Chryfalis, 
(however ftrange, unnatural and ludicrous the 
the figures may be, which Goedaert and others 
have found out for them, in the wild fallies of 
their imaginations) in which we are not able 
to demonftrate all the parts of the future 
infect; and this as evidently, as in the true 
Nymph. It appears therefore to be beyond 
all doubt, that the Chryfalis differs from the 
Nymph only in colour, and the difpofition of 
its parts, or, as the philofophers term it, per 
accidens. 
But it will be asked, perhaps, how it happens 
that limbs fhould be more confpicuous in 
the Nymph, which is evidently the very infe@ 
itfelf, than in the Chryfalis, though equally 
worthy of that name? and why, in the latter, 
the parts are not fo faftened, as it were, to each 
other, asin the former. It may be demanded 
alfo, for what reafon the skins caft by the 
Nymph fhould be much thinner, than thofe 
thrown off by the Chryfallides, which part with 
theirs in the fame manner that the chicken 
leaves the fhell of its egy. To all this I can 
only anfwer, that thefe things are hardly, if at all 
explicable; the nature of them depending en- 
tirely on the pleafure of their Creator ; and the 
reafons of this variation being hidden in his im- 
penetrable wifdom, whofe providence has be- 
ftowed on his animal productions as great a 
variety of cloathing, as it has pleafed him to 
form diftiné& fpecies of fuch beings. It appears 
therefore that in thefe and other as true re- 
/ 
fearches, we fhould endeavour, by all means, 
to explain difficulties by reafons drawn from 
the nature of things themfelves, not from the 
{canty ftorehoufe of our imaginations. Other- 
wife, by deviating though ever fo little from 
that rule and order, which is firmly eftablifhed 
throughout the whole creation by the all-wife, 
and powerful author of it, it is impoflible we 
fhould not go aftray at every ftep, and lofe 
ourfelves at laft in the wrong paths, directed by 
our own feeble and imperfect reafon. 
As the foregoing queftions deferve great at- 
tention, I fhall propoie that folution of them, 
which nature herfelf feems to authorize and 
fupport. We may obferve, that the Nymph of 
Ants, Flies, and Bees have a much {flenderer 
body than the Chryfalis before fpoken of ; and 
from this it appears reafonable to fuppofe, they 
fhould have a much tenderer skin. The Nymphs, 
befides this, are always confined to moitt places, 
where their exterior covering cannot readily 
harden: do not the Nymphs of Ants lie hid 
under the earth? and thofe of Flies in putrid 
flefh, the excrements of animals, and other 
moift places. As for the Nymphs of Bees, 
they are always found furrounded with moif- 
ture, inclofed in wax, and covered befides, 
like Silkworms, with a thin membrane: be- 
fides this the Nymphs of Bees, at the time 
when they enter upon their period of change, 
have all their parts fo exceffively moift, that 
fometimes they weigh twice as much as the 
Bees that are produced from them. 
It is obfervable, indeed furprifing, that the 
humours conftituting this moifture muft be 
diffipated by infenfible perfpiration, before the 
milky limbs of the infect can move them- 
felves in the leaft; and all this while the crea- 
ture difcharges no excrement. This Ariftotle 
has remarked in exprefs words *. 
On the other hand, the Chryfallides of diur- 
nal Butterflies (I {peak here in general, and 
do not confine myfelf to one kind of Chryfalis) 
go through their changes in the open air, with 
the greateft part of their bodies deftitute of any 
webb to protect them againft the inclemencies 
of the weather; for this reafon their outer {kin 
will naturally grow hard, and therefore may 
be caft off, as has been already taken notice 
of, without being liable to fhrink up, or lofe 
any thing of its original form. Befides, the 
fkin of the Horned Beetle, Tab. XXVIII. fig. 
VI, VII, vil1, which is likewife found un- 
der the earth, is fo very fine, that in point 
of thicknefs it is greatly exceeded by the coat 
of the common Chryfalis. 
If any one fhould afk, if it is for the fame 
reafon that the Chryfalis itfelf grows hard, and 
the Nymph continues in its former ftate of 
of foftnefs? and why, on the one hand, the 
Nymph is covered with a thin {kin, and its 
limbs adhere but little to each other; where- 
as, on the other hand, the Chryfalis is fur- 
rounded by a kind of hard fhell, and al] its 
* Hift, Anim, Lib. V. Cap. 19. 
parts 
