The (HST OLR Y of. I N SiELCeT’s. 
eg wherein they are to be generated or 
formed: but we have already touched upon 
thefe obfervations concerning the skin in the 
foregoing pages, when we treated of the 
Nymphs and Chryfallides cafting their skin. 
As our intention is to offer fome rules and 
orders of tran{mutation, which comprehend 
all the changes that happen in the infects known 
to us; we fhall fix our eyes firft on the changes 
of thofe infects, which iffue inftantaneoufly, as 
‘it is faid, out of the egg, and which have 
already gone through the whole procefs of 
their change, or accretion of their limbs in their 
mother’s womb ; that is, when by the conti- 
nual increafe of their invifible yet effential 
parts, as they are called, they have become 
perfect animals in the egg, they have under- 
gone no other change out of it, except only 
the evaporation before mentioned ; nor are they 
to be afterwards fubject to any other change or 
accretion into a Nymph, which is alfo per- 
formed only by evaporation, 
This we fhall offer as the firft, fimpleft, and 
plaineft method of change in infects, and from 
this we hall proceed by degrees to fuch as are 
more obfcure, complete, and difficult of com- 
prehenfion, mentioning fome fo intricate, that, 
it feems to many, they cannot be explained at 
all. This notion hath been fo eftablifhed by 
cuftom, that for want of a more proper term, 
the bodies have been called eggs; fince to a 
-perfon, who views them flightly and fuperfici- 
ally, not even the leaft veftige of any diftina 
limb appears in them. 
The firft order of change then, according to 
our fyftem, is, when the infeét, lying in the’ 
egg or fkin without food, after fome days eva- 
poration and diflipation of the {uperfluous 
moifture, creeps out of it, perfect in all its 
parts, fo that afterwards it is not changed into 
a Nymph, nor undergoes any other remarkable 
mutation. But fince this infect, before it hath 
arrived to its full bignefs and proper growth, by 
means of the food that is given it, is fometimes 
obliged to caft its skin, like the Worms or Ca- 
terpillars that are changed into Nymphs; and 
fince, under the laft change of the skin, its 
limbs alfo undergo fome tranfmutation; it is 
therefore the infect ought to be confidered asa 
real Nymph, at the time it is in its laft skin ; 
for when this is caft, it is obferved to be fit for 
generation, and to have come to its maturity and 
full vigour, and not before. 
Since therefore fome infects are changed 
after they have caft the laft skin, which may 
be exemplified in the long-lege’d Spider de- 
{cribed by Goedaert; we fhall, for this reafon, 
confider this infe& as a kind of Nymph, and 
for diftinétion fake call it a Nymph-animal. 
Not that we would have any perfon tied down 
to make ufe of the terms we have offered, 
being fatisfied, if the orders of thefe changes be 
as diligently, accurately and diftin@ly obferved 
as they are in nature, for in this lies the prin- 
cipal and only knowledge. 
If we further ferioufly attend to this change, 
we fhall plainly fee, that it not only agrees 
19 
with the accretion of the limbs in fanguiferous 
animals, but alfo with that epigenefis, or fuper- 
addition, obfervable in plants or vegetables; this 
therefore we would have underftood of the 
orders of changes, and fhall accordingly make 
the like application. 
To give forme inftances of what happens in 
. fanguiferous animals, none feems more proper 
for that purpofe, than the accretion of the 
limbs ina Frog, Tab. XLVI. a. for as the young 
Frog is very vifible, by means of the black 
{pot which we fee'in the egg, fo we find that 
this is nothing but the very animal, in the fame 
manner as we have fhewn in infects. But as 
the infects are not produced with their food, fo 
no other difference can be difcovered in this 
cafe, than that the young Frog iffues forth 
with its proper aliment ; and it is alfo found to 
be wrapt up in a certain membrane like the 
infect, though it ftill feeds for five days with- 
in it. 
. Further, as the Frog, immediately after the 
burfting of this membrane, finds matter to 
feed upon, for it lies in the midft of it, fo 
likewife are the infects readily fupplied with 
nourifhment, when their eggs are broken; fince 
fome of them are placed within, and the reft 
without, and upon the fubftance on which they 
are to feed. 
To purfue the analogy, as the Frog pro- 
ceeds from its egg without legs; fo we fee a 
great many infects creep out of their skins 
without them. And as the legs and the reft 
of the Frogs limbs increafe in procefs of time, 
fome within, and others without the skin, fo 
that at length it refembles a Nymph of the 
fecond order, in the fame manner we fee, that 
all the limbs of infects, as well thofe that are 
in, as thofe that are out of the skin, stow 
by degrees, until they are changed into. real 
Nymphs. 
Laftly, as the Nymph of the Frog before- 
mentioned cafts its skin in procefs of time, 
and expofes to open view its hidden limbs, 
which we faw through the skin before, and by 
degrees attains its full maturity and ability for 
generation: fo, after the fame mnnner, we ob- 
ferve, that the Nymphs of infects after fome 
time caft their skins, and thew their covered 
_ limbs, and, like the frogs, are rendered capa- 
ble of propagating their fpecies. 
But we fhall treat this matter more at large 
in the following fheets, when we lay before the 
reader our own moft remarkable experiments 
on Frogs; the principal part whereof has been 
performed before the grand duke of Tufcany, 
the fublimity of whofe noble and accomplithed 
mind, is infpired with a generous and benevo- 
lent affection for the liberal arts and {ciences. 
Let us now confider the vegetable kinds, 
Tab. XLVI. a. for as we fee thele grow from a 
feed, which infolds fome leaves, or a very ten- 
der fprout ; in like manner, we find that in- 
fects ripen into a fuller and ftronger habit from 
their feed, which contains all their limbs, or 
rather the animal itfelf wrapt up in the skin, 
For 
