224 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEK CE-GOSSI P. 



[Oct. 1, 1S70. 



belly from head to vent, without puncturing the inner 

 membrane, turning back and pinning out the skin as 

 I went on. The immediate result of this portion of 

 the operation was to elicit from a member of the staff 

 seated at a neighbouring desk, a sound between a 

 sigh and a groan ; in fact, a prolonged " phoof-f-f-f-f." 

 Well, I confess that an unpleasant odour did per- 

 vade the room, but, absorbed in the interest of the 

 operation, my companion and I hardly perceived 

 it. Now, for the young vipers ! I opened the 

 stomach, and a little way down came upon some- 

 thing not exactly coiled up, but lying in a graceful 

 serpentine double curve. "By George, Lord," I 

 exclaimed, " here is one ! " " Looks like it, cer- 

 tainly," he replied. The stench by this time had 

 become — to use a mild expression — intrusive, and 

 the before-mentioned member of the staff remon- 

 strative. " I say, you fellows," roared he, " this is 

 too strong ; 1 never before wished I had a cold ; but 

 I would welcome the catarrh which would render my 

 nostrils impervious to this'stink. Open the windows." 

 Undisturbed by the inconsiderate interruption of our 

 friend, we tranquilly pursued our work. I endea- 

 voured gently to withdraw the supposed young viper. 

 No ! it would not move; possibly it was entangled with 

 many others, for there was a firm dark mass further 

 on. I laid open the remainder of the stomach, and 

 took from it, not a Laocoon-like coil of snakes, but 

 a half-digested mouse, and found that the supposed 

 young viper was the mouse's tail! There were no 

 young vipers either in the stomach or the uterus, 

 and therefore, if the finder saw anything protruding 

 from the viper's mouth, it was this little caudal 

 imitation of a young snake. One thing is certain, 

 that the mouse was not alive when the viper was 

 taken, for it was almost digested ; otherwise one 

 might have thought it possible that the poor little 

 beast had been seen in the act of waving a farewell 

 to the world by a final wag of its tail ; and, therefore, 

 if this appendage were seen at all by the captor, it 

 must have been partially vomited and re-swallowed 

 by the viper. 



Thereby hung a tail ! Parturiit ciperits ; nascitur 

 ridiculus mm. So much for this fresh "proof 

 positive'" of the viper swallowing its young. 



Henky Lee, in " Land and Water" 



" KILLING NO MURDER." 



IN a periodical (which has now, I believe, ceased 

 to exist) a rather remarkable discussion was 

 carried on in the years 1SGS-G9, on the grave ques- 

 tion " Do insects feel pain ? " This, at least, was 

 the point at which the discussion started, though 

 it was soon apparent that the debate extended over 

 a wider space — that is, if insects feel pain, it would 

 follow also that they had pleasurable sensations — 

 and from the subject of feeling generally, the debaters 



soon passed to the consideration of instinct, reason, " 

 and memory, as these show themselves, or are 

 thought to do so, in the realms of insect life. 



This semi-scientific controversy dragged its slow 

 length along for many months, eliciting a certain 

 amount of truth, in fact and argument, though it 

 may be doubted whether any of the disputants on 

 either side were materially influenced by the logic 

 or rhetoric of their antagonists ; for we know that 

 if you — 



" Convince a man against his will, 

 He holds the same opinion still." 



The living beings most directly concerned in the 

 controversy, had, as was unavoidable, no opportunity 

 of appearing "in person" or "by counsel"; and 

 though a statement of great brevity on their part 

 might have settled the question speedily, and ren- 

 dered needless a vast consumption of quarto and 

 foolscap ; such, under the circumstances, could not 

 be had. Indeed, the aspect of the business, as far 

 as the insects were concerned, was sufficiently un- 

 promising, and reminded one of the old joke passed 

 upon the aristocrats by the sans culottes in the days 

 of the French Revolution :— " Gentlemen, you have 

 got to be shaved — there's no doubt about that — but 

 if you wriggle too much you will get cut." So it 

 might have been said to the iusects by their ad- 

 mirers and collectors, "You have got to be captured 

 and killed ; if you don't feel it, aud therefore don't 

 mind it, well and good ; if you can feel, why— we 

 must kill you all the same." 



The cabinet drawers wait expectantly ; there are 

 gaps which need to be filled up, and "series" which 

 cry for completion. Had, therefore, the question 

 of "pain" or "no pain" been solved by the proving 

 of the former, we are of opinion that the bulk of 

 entomologists would have gone on the even tenour 

 of their way, in spite of the fact. 



To wade through such a discussion now would be 

 unprofitable in the extreme to most persons; yet 

 now that all acrimony may be supposed to have dis- 

 appeared, or, by a process of mental decomposition, 

 changed itself into that amiability which is so 

 happily common amongst entomologists and natu- 

 ralists generally— I have ventured to run over the 

 whole, and without attempting to gather up the 

 scattered threads of the various arguments, pro and 

 con, I have gleaned a few "crumbs of comfort" (to 

 borrow an expression from one of our Puritan 

 divines), which may be acceptable to those engaged, 

 in some way or other, in the study of insects ; and 

 who are therefore compelled to kill them occasionally, 

 or, it may be, frequently. 



Opinions and vague assertions must be disre- 

 garded in this hasty glance at a few of the facts 

 brought forward ; and though I select those only 

 which were adduced by the advocates of what I 

 take to be the most philos ophical theory : that they 

 are facts— my own observations of insect doings and 



