The HISTORY of INSECTS, 
within that skin fprung up, or budded into 
Nymphs, by means of the accrétion of the 
limbs? For what reafon then, or with what 
right, can we call them eggs? But, befides ‘all 
this, the gentlemen now mentioned do not 
confider thefe eggs as real animals, but only 
as thells filled with a liquid, out of which the 
animals are at length to be generated by a 
ftrange and miraculous transformation. Hence 
we alfo obferve, that:‘Mr. Ray alfo, in his ca- 
talogue of the Cambridge plants, with great 
reafon doubts, whether the Chryfalis be hidden 
in the egg which they {peak of; at the fame 
time confeffing, that they want a proper word 
to exprefs this transformation. As this author 
aflerts a little before, that thefe eggs have the 
fame relation to the Flies as the Aurelia have 
to Butterflies, he certainly commits a great 
error: for the Aurelia is the infect itfelf; but 
thefe eggs, as they are called, are only the 
Worms skins unfeparated, in which is con- 
tained not a Chryfalis, but a real Nymph; 
which clearly and diftinctly reprefents to the 
~ life all its limbs, as may at any time be de- 
monftrated by us. To this we are to add, that 
there is no total tranformation in this egg, as 
they imagine to be the cafe in the Chryfallides. 
However, it is fufficient for me to have fet 
forth the matter as it is: for I would by no 
means enter into difputes about words, but 
‘would give each its natural fignification, pro- 
vided the eggs, as they are called, be referred 
to the fourth order of difagreeing tran{muta- 
tions, which is the moft- worthy of notice in 
all nature; for in this proper diftribution of 
things confifts the great utility of the prefent 
work. 
In proceeding to elucidate this obfcure order 
of changes fomewhat more, I muft repeat, 
that thefe Worms, which undergo this parti- 
cular change, do not put off, but abfolutely 
retain, their skin, under which their limbs are 
infenfibly increafed and brought to perfection ; 
and therefore, if that skin be tender, it accom- 
modates and contracts itfelf to the figure of the 
enclofed Nymph. For the fame reafon alfo, 
as the old skin is preferved, the original rings, 
which, like fo many {mall joints, divide the 
body of the Worm, may be then {till feen 
therein; though, in the mean time, thefe inci- 
fions or rings, in fome cafes, appear to be obli- 
terated, or nearly fo, in the skin, This holds 
chiefly, when the incifions either have not been 
very diftinct in the Worm itfelf, or when a very 
thin skin, every where entirely obedient to the 
inwardly hidden Nymph, is fo extended there- 
with, that the incifions or inflexions of the 
body cannot be any longer known. This I 
have exemplified in Tab, XLV. Fig. xxvuit. 
and XXVIII. . 
I have obferved alfo, that the skin, which 
is not caft off, in fome of thefe eggs, as they 
are called, has been. fo accurately fitted and 
accommodated, all about the body of the 
Nymphs contained within, that it diftin@ly 
and externally reprefented the three principal 
‘ture herfelf than in our ftudies, 
33 
divifions of the body; that is, the head, tho- 
rax, and belly. And hence it is, that fome of 
thefe Nymphs are obferved to be, «as it were, 
annulated; and others are without rings. This 
has likewife been partly obferved by the before 
celebrated fagacious gentleman. Thus I have , 
briefly explained all thofe things which I 
thought neceffary to be taken notice of, before 
J undertook to define this fourth order. 
I now therefore proceed, and fhall direct all 
my labour to make manifeft, as clearly as I 
can, the ftupendous works of the moft adored 
and all-wife Creator, which have been hither- 
to, to our fhame, but little known; that we 
may therefore love God, our Creator, with the 
greater and more ardent zeal, and behold him 
with higher veneration. We can neither juftly 
love or reverence God, fo long as we are 
darkened with our ignorance. Let us, there- 
fore, give praife and thanks to the Supreme 
Architect-for his unmerited favour, fince he 
alone has lighted, and laid before us, the cleareft 
fire in all nature: a light, which has not only 
eafily difcovered his moft wife providence and 
infinite power, in thofe wonderful means which 
he makes ufe of to defend and preferve thofe 
things which he created; but has alfo produced 
thofe things {0 openly to the view of all men, 
that its fplendour cannot be obfcured by any 
laboured arguments of human origin. We 
thus fee, indeed, no more than the furface, or, 
as it were, the thadow of the wonderful works 
of God delineated here, or by any other. And 
this ought, indeed, to be the greateft encou- 
ragement to us, that we may indefatigably > 
exert ourfelves in thefe refearches, and rather 
feek for the caufes and effects of things in na- 
Indeed, moft 
people are at this time fo blind, that they ima- 
gine no truth arifes from any other fource than 
out of their reafonings; to which they con- 
tend, place fhould be given as to matters 
which furpafs even nature. Indeed, we can- 
not know natural things but by their effeéts, 
-being incapable of comprehending their caufes. 
Let us return now to what we propofed ; 
and let it be obferved, that our fourth order of 
changes confifts only in this, that the Worm, 
having quitted its firft fotm, which it had in 
its egg, wherein it lay, like a Nymph, without 
food, infenfibly acquires, by force of the ali- 
ment it is afterwards fupplied with, other limbs 
and parts, arifing by accretion under its skin ; 
and afterwards, at length, in this its skin, which 
is never caft off by it, as it is by other creatures 
that are changed into Nymphs, it affumes the 
form of a fecond Nymph, and for the firft 
time lofes, as it were, all its motion. ‘This, 
however, is in a few days reftored to it, by the 
evaporation of the fuperfluous humours: fo 
that the Worm, then laftly difengaging itfelf 
from thefe skins, caft two skins together; and 
now difplaying itfelf with pride, in a more ele- 
gant garb, and become mature, as it were, for 
propagation, it immediately thews itfelf teady 
to perform this, the great bufinels of its life. ~ 
i. A tates 
