[65]

The actual rate of development as just remarked is not concerned here.

The case of metamorphosis is in some degree different from mere development - why an embryonic mammal & fish at an early period resembles each other, & why a butterfly for instance passes through a caterpillar stage why no plant, at least [illeg] gets this a distinct [illeg] developed in a further chapter. As a general rule however, it may be remarked that higher animals (or those which have undergone most differentiation) undergo less [illeg] than lower animals; & as according to Brulles Mr. Milne Edwards & rule, the more an animal has been differentiated, the earlier will the successive modifications have been affected in the embryo, so it might be thought that this process would [illeg] wd tend to absorb or obliterate any larval or metamorphic stage. There may be something in the notion; but it can have I think only a limited application. Thus