Part 4

Such are the principal subjects to which Lamarck’s attention was directed, together with some of the results to which his investigations led him. After his establishment in the Museum of Natural History, much of his time was occupied with the objects whose history he was appointed to teach; and so favourably were his labours in this department received by the public, that his interest as well as his inclination would have conspired to make him cultivate it to the uttermost. But his exertions received an early check, and were at last entirely stopped, by the inroads of a most afflicting calamity. His eyes had long been weak, and as he advanced in years, they became so diseased, that he was obliged to refrain from using them for the examination of any minute object. Hence it was that he had recourse to the celebrated Latreille to assist him in that part of his system of invertebrata which related to insects. Notwithstanding every precaution, the disorder increased, and at last produced total blindness, which continued till his death. “This event was the more distressing,” says Cuvier, “because it overtook him in such circumstances that he could obtain none of those means of alleviation which might otherwise have been procured. He had been married four times, and was the father of seven children. The whole of his little patrimony, and even the fruits of his early economy, were lost in one of those hazardous investments which shameless speculators so often hold out as baits to the credulous. His retired life, the consequence of his youthful habits, and attachment to systems so little in accordance with the ideas which prevailed in science, were not calculated to recommend him to those who had the power of dispensing favours. When numberless infirmities, brought on by old age, had increased his wants, nearly his whole means of support consisted of a small income derived from his chair. The friends of science, attracted by the high reputation which his botanical and zoological works had conferred on him, witnessed this with surprise. It appeared to them, that a government which protects the sciences, ought to have provided for the wants of a celebrated individual; but their esteem for him was doubled, when they saw the fortitude with which the illustrious old man bore up against the assaults both of fortune and of nature. They particularly admired the devotedness which he inspired in such of his children as remained with him. His eldest daughter, entirely devoted to the duties of filial affection for many years, never left him for an instant, readily engaged in every study which might supply his want of sight, wrote to his dictation a portion of his last works, and accompanied and supported him as long as he was able to take some exercise. Her sacrifices, indeed, were carried to a degree which it is impossible to express; when the father could no longer leave his room, the daughter never left the house. When she afterwards did so, for the first time, she was incommoded by the free air, the use of which had been so long unfamiliar to her. It is rare to see virtue carried to such a degree, and it is not less so to inspire it to that degree; and it is adding to the praise of M. de Lamarck, to recount what his children did for him.”

After several years of affliction, his constitution at last gave way, and he died on the 18th December, 1829, in the 85th year of his age. Some of his children had been carried off previously, and at the time of his disease only two sons and two daughters survived. The eldest of the former was appointed to a situation of considerable trust under government.

A just estimate of Lamarck’s merits, will entitle him to occupy a high place among modern naturalists. Endowed by nature with varied and vigorous mental powers, he was fitted to excel in many branches of knowledge, and never failed to strike out a new path in every department to which he attached himself. He possessed, in an eminent degree, some intellectual qualities which are not frequently combined; a lofty and active imagination, in no way unfitted him for the most unwearied and laborious investigation of minute matters of fact. Hence he seems equally following the natural bent of his mind, when devising a theory to explain the most recondite operations of nature, and describing the markings of a shell, or the ramifications of a coral. It is to be lamented that his imagination so often gained the ascendency over his other faculties, and led to those daring and licentious speculations which have been alluded to. But in other instances, his fancy becomes the legitimate handmaid of his reason, and lends her aid in beautifying and illustrating his speculations. He possessed especially all the requisite qualifications for a zoologist, and it is on what he accomplished in this department that his fame must principally rest. When we perceive the admirable manner in which he discerned and characterized natural groups, his skill in seizing on the most distinctive marks of species, the indefatigable industry with which he investigated their history and synonymy, together with the excellence of his system of arrangement,--we are led to regret that he was so late in entering upon this field of labour, as to be obliged to confine his attention to one division of the animal kingdom, and that he so frequently deviated even from that, in order to indulge his favourite practice of theorizing.

However little value may now be attached to these theories, without a due consideration of them, we can neither appreciate some of the best of Lamarck’s writings, nor understand the character of the man himself. In his own eyes, they appeared of paramount importance. The most practically useful of his zoological and botanical works he regarded as trivial in comparison. He conceived them to present a key to some of the most secret operations of nature, and to afford the means of placing many branches of knowledge on a new foundation. This ardent attachment to views which have so generally been considered extravagant and untenable, may seem surprising in the case of an individual whom all must acknowledge to be possessed of much acuteness and discrimination. It is perhaps to be accounted for by their being nursed in the long solitudes to which his bad health and limited circumstances frequently confined him, without having his eyes opened to their fallacies by a discussion of their merits, or interchange of thought with others: for

’Tis thought’s exchange, which, like the alternate rush Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned scum, And defecates the student’s standing pool; By that untutor’d, contemplation raves, And nature’s fool by wisdom is outdone.

It may likewise be supposed that he would be unwilling to perceive, or if he did perceive, equally reluctant to acknowledge, the imperfection of systems which he had wrought out with so much care and labour. For that they must have cost him a great degree of laborious thought, will appear from the slightest inspection. It must also be allowed, that they evince a reach of mind, a power of original thinking, and a degree of varied knowledge, calculated to convey no mean idea of his intellectual character. Neither can we deny to them a certain degree of consistency, or adaptation of parts to each other; and although the praise of consistency must be qualified by the admission that it is consistency in error, yet, in such cases, this is of such difficult attainment, as of itself to imply a high degree of acuteness and circumspection. However startling the conclusions to which Lamarck leads us, they are generally drawn by a legitimate and fairly managed process of induction from the assumed premises. But the very extravagance of the conclusions ought to have created a suspicion that the premises were erroneous; and they are, in fact, almost invariably found to be wholly inadmissible.

While, therefore, we acknowledge Lamarck’s preeminent excellence in the ordinary subjects of natural history, we cannot fail to lament that his attention was so often engrossed by fanciful speculations; speculations of which, all things considered, it is no undue depreciation to affirm that they are at once absurd and impious--alike opposed to reason and religion; and the regret which must be felt in making such an assertion in regard to so celebrated a man, is not a little enhanced by the accompanying reflection, that, with Lamarck and others of his school, the latter imputation would be regarded as infinitely less discreditable than the former.

INTRODUCTION.

But O! what terms expressive may relate The change, the splendour of their new-formed state! Their texture, nor composed of filmy skin, Of cumbrous flesh without, or bone within, But something than corporeal more refined, And agile as their blithe informing mind. In every eye ten thousand brilliants blaze, And living pearls the vast horizon gaze; Gemmed o’er their heads the mines of India gleam, And heaven’s own wardrobe has arrayed their frame: Each spangled back bright sprinkled specks adorn, Each plume imbibes the rosy tinctured morn, Spread on each wing the florid seasons glow, Shaded and verged with the celestial bow. Where colours blend an ever varying dye, And wanton in their gay exchanges vie.

BROOKE.

Having already discussed the general history of butterflies at considerable length, in a volume devoted to the illustration of the kinds found in Britain, it is not our intention to resume the subject in this place, further than to make a few remarks on certain peculiarities presented by many foreign species, a selection from which forms the subject of the present volume.

The remarkable superiority in size and beauty of most tropical productions over those of temperate regions, is scarcely more strikingly exemplified in any department of nature than in this. The most richly ornamented of our native species, and we possess many of great beauty, appear insignificant when contrasted with those of Brazil and Eastern Asia. Various as are the modifications of form which they present in this country, we find nothing to prepare us for the peculiar outline and aspect which many kinds assume in the warmer regions of the earth. Here we seldom find any having the hinder wings prolonged into a tail, but among foreign species this is a common appendage, sometimes long and linear, at other times broad and spatulate; and occasionally there are not fewer than three or four on each of the hinder wings. Along with this variety of outline, they exhibit almost every possible shade of colour, from the most brilliant to the most obscure, combined and blended in the most elegant and harmonious designs, rendering this tribe of creatures one of the most ornamental to be found in nature.

Although such endless diversity of colouring is observable in this class as a whole, it is, at the same time, worthy of remark, that most of the principal groups are characterized by the prevalence of particular hues, as well as considerable uniformity in their mode of distribution; that is to say, certain modifications of structure are generally accompanied with a certain pictorial design. Thus, the greater proportion of the genus _Pieris_ are white; _Colias_ and _Callidryas_ various shades of yellow, from the palest sulphur-yellow to deep reddish-ochre. _Argynnis_ is almost invariably fulvous or reddish brown, variegated with numerous undulating black lines or spots; the under side more or less ornamented with silvery streaks and spots. In the species of the European genus _Thais_, the wings are spotted or chequered with black and red. The prevailing colour in the genus _Argus_ is azure-blue. _Danais_, _Idæa_, and _Euplœa_, have this character in common, that the breast and head are always punctured with white. In _Cethosia_, hieroglyphical markings cover the under side of the wings in such a manner as is observable in no other genus.

Many of the caterpillars of exotic butterflies offer peculiarities in their forms and appendages, of which we find no prototype in the kinds occurring in Britain. In the place of spines, some have the body thickly covered with long fleshy prominences, of a corneous consistency at the tip, and probably serving as a means of defence. In others, spines of singular conformation and formidable size are thickly stuck over the whole surface, making it resemble a miniature forest. A few are provided with a long anal horn, resembling that which is so conspicuous in the caterpillars of the Sphinges. If Madam Merian’s delineation of the larva of _Urania Leilus_ be correct (which there is now reason to believe is the case), it bears many slender spines, as long as the whole body, and as stiff as iron wire. Another species (that of _Papilio Protesilaus_), is likewise clothed with plumose spines, two of which at the hinder extremity are much longer than the rest, and terminate in an appendage like a star. Equally remarkable with any of these is the caterpillar of one of the Nymphalidæ (_Adoleas Aconthea_), which has a series of long filiform bodies projecting from each side, thickly clothed laterally with hairs of considerable length diminishing gradually to the extremity, which is armed with a few minute spines.

As might be expected, great diversity likewise prevails in the appearance of the chrysalides; but to these it will be more convenient hereafter to refer, in the preliminary notices to the respective genera. One of the most remarkable, however, may be mentioned, that of _Morpho Menelaus_, which has the nasal prominence of the prothorax produced into a long curved horn, which extends to the middle of the abdomen. In another species of the same group, the head is obtuse, projects considerably, and is curved upwards at the extremity, exactly like the beak of an ancient galley.

Our acquaintance with the geographical distribution of the diurnal lepidoptera was long very imperfect, and it may yet be said to be very far from complete. The older naturalists seem to have been but little alive to the importance of the subject, and even if it had been otherwise, the means they possessed for illustrating it were comparatively limited. Those who had opportunities of collecting specimens in foreign countries, valued them merely as specimens, and, in general, kept no record of their localities, or natural history properly so called. Collections from China and the East Indies were indiscriminately mixed, in their way homewards, with others from the Cape of Good Hope; and American species were in like manner mingled with such as are proper to the West Indian islands. Hence it followed, that Fabricius and others were so often led into error when they indicated the native country of the kinds they described: but, indeed, the author just named did not very frequently attempt this, but merely says, “From the Indies”--an expression which means nothing more explicit, in his acceptation of it, than that the species in question is exotic. Linnæus, also, when he uses the same word, means indiscriminately either the East or West Indies. The indications of localities in modern works are in general copious and accurate, but they have not hitherto been made the basis of any general and satisfactory view of the distribution of the species.

As might be expected in the case of animals endowed with considerable power of flight, certain kinds of diurnal lepidoptera have a much more extensive range than most other insects--than the coleoptera for example. It is now ascertained that _Cynthia cardui_, a species well known throughout Europe, (without confounding it, as may sometimes have been done, with the kindred species _C. Hunteri_), occurs in Senegal, Egypt, Barbary, Cape of Good Hope, in the islands of Bourbon and Madagascar, in Bengal, China, Java, New Holland, Brazil, and North America; so that it may be called a complete cosmopolite. Of the four quarters of the globe, Europe is poorest in these insects; and next to it is Africa. Asia, including the great islands of the Indian Archipelago and America, are both exceedingly rich. Of the former, the islands seem to be much more prolific than the continent; they are the exclusive haunts of the gigantic _Ornithoptera_, several of the largest and most richly coloured of the _Pierides_, as well as several of the most remarkable species of the genus _Morpho_. South America produces a greater number than any other country; and Brazil, always preeminent for its exuberance both in animal and vegetable life, may be said to be the richest portion of the new continent. It has been estimated by an individual who has enjoyed the advantage of personally examining the country, that Brazil alone affords between 600 and 700 species of diurnal lepidoptera, a calculation which seems in no degree overcharged. Among these are many genera peculiar to America, such as _Heliconia_, _Castnia_, _Erycina_, &c. In almost every one of its physical properties, Africa affords a complete contrast to the country just named; and however favourable its arid soil, and far-extending deserts of parched and drifting sand, may be to the existence of certain peculiar races of coleoptera, it is by no means generally adapted to the support of creatures which derive their entire sustenance from vegetable juices. The sea-coast, and umbrageous banks of the larger rivers, however, are pretty abundantly supplied, and afford many species peculiar to the country. This is the metropolitan station of the genus _Acrea_, and it is likewise inhabited by several peculiar groups of the genera _Papilio_, _Pieris_, &c. The neighbouring island of Madagascar is much richer than the continent, and exemplifies what has been observed in relation to many other islands, that their zoological productions by no means correspond to those of the nearest portion of the main land. Little relation exists between the diurnal lepidoptera of Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope, but a very close one can be traced between the former and those inhabiting distant parts of the continent, such as Senegal and Sierra Leone. Mauritius and Bourbon likewise differ considerably in their lepidopterous productions from Madagascar. In the latter, magnificent _Papilios_, _Acrææ_, _Euplœæ_, _Danaides_, _Uraniæ_, _Cyrestes_, _and Xanthidia_, embellish by their elegant forms and splendid colours, the marshy and pestilential forests of that extensive island, and rival in beauty that majestic and teeming vegetation which has always excited the admiration of botanists[22]. New Holland is not without its peculiar species, although this department of its zoology is not characterised by such marked singularities as are observed among its higher animals and vegetable productions.

A singular circumstance has been recorded by a recent traveller regarding one of the species, _Euplœa humata_ (Mac Leay), found in the country just referred to, namely, that it is employed as an article of food!

He states that there is a certain mountain, called the Bugong Mountain from multitudes of small moths, named Bugong by the natives, which congregate at certain times upon the masses of granite which compose it. The months of November, December, and January are quite a season of festivity among these people, who assemble from every quarter to collect these moths. They are stated also to form the principal summer food of those who inhabit to the south of the Snow Mountains. To collect these moths (improperly so called, for as above indicated, they are true butterflies), the natives make smothered fires under the rocks on which they congregate; and suffocating them with smoke, collect them by bushels, and then bake them by placing them on heated ground. Thus they separate from them the down and the wings; they are then grounded and formed into cakes, resembling lumps of fat, and often smoked, which preserves them for some time. When accustomed to this diet, they thrive and fatten exceedingly upon it[23]. Millions of these butterflies were likewise observed on the coasts of New Holland, both by Captains Cook and King; and thus, says Mr. Kirby, has a kind Providence provided an abundant supply of food for a race that, subsisting entirely on hunting and fishing, must often be reduced to great straits[24].