If warmth is thus without doubt the agency which has gradually changed
the colour and marking of many of our butterflies, it sufficiently
appears from what has just been said concerning the nature of the
change that the chief part in the transmutation is not to be attributed
to the agency in question, but to the organism which is affected by it.
Induced by warmth, there begins a change in the ultimate processes of
the matter undergoing transformation, which increases from generation
to generation, and which not only consists in the appearance of the
colouring matter in one place instead of another, but also in the
replacement of yellow, in one place by white and in another by black,
or in the transformation of black into white on some portions of the
wings, whilst in others black remains. When we consider with what
extreme fidelity the most insignificant details of marking are, in
constant species of butterflies, transmitted from generation to
generation, a total change of the kind under consideration cannot but
appear surprising, and we should not explain it by the nature of the
agency (warmth), but only by the nature of the species affected. The
latter cannot react upon the warmth in the same manner that a solution
of an iron salt reacts upon potassium ferrocyanide or upon sulphuretted
hydrogen; the colouring matter of the butterfly’s wing which was
previously black does not become blue or yellow, nor does that which
was white become changed into black, but a new marking is developed
from the existing one--or, as I may express it in more general terms,
the species takes another course of development; the complicated
chemico-physical processes in the matter composing the pupa become
gradually modified in such a manner that, as the final result, a new
marking and colouring of the butterfly is produced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account