Oct. 1, 1S70.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



225 



insect habits lead me to believe ; and whatever may- 

 have been advanced on the other side, does not in 

 the least invalidate or set aside these. 



Nothing is more common, even now, than the 

 accusation of cruelty ; and it is heard on the lips of 

 otherwise intelligent people. When the entomolo- 

 gist attempts to show that insects have little or no 

 feeling, he is at once charged with "making the 

 wish the father to the thought"; and his opponents 

 shake their heads or lift their eyebrows, as seriously 

 as if they were absolute vegetarians, and innocent 

 of all participation in the taking of animal life. 

 The very trite Shakespearian utterance about the 

 beetle and the giant is always handy; though it 

 has been shown very conclusively that its meaning, 

 when rightly understood, runs just counter to the 

 sense in which it is quoted by those who desire to 

 rouse a pseudo-sympathy for insects and similarly 

 organized beings. 



"What great events from little causes spring!" 

 A long controversy was set a-going by a brief and 

 very mild letter, from a certain " Entomologicus," 

 who called attention to the three theories held re- 

 garding the sensations experienced by insects ; viz., 

 1st, that they feel no pain ; 2nd, that they feel pain 

 acutely ; 3rd, that they feel pain, but only in pro- 

 portion to their size and precarious life. To the 

 last he gave in his adhesion, as does also the writer, 

 for though many circumstances in insect history 

 tend apparently to show that insects have no feel- 

 ing, yet we cannot but suppose that life in an 

 animal differs from life in a plant, iu this particular 

 amongst others— that it has consciousness, and 

 therefore is susceptible of what is (for want of a 

 better designation) called pleasure and pain ; for a 

 moment's thought will show that these are only 

 relative terms, and to a large extent, things of as- 

 sociation, being dependent on the connection of 

 mental impressions with bodily sensations. How, 

 therefore, the latter by themselves may influence 

 creatures which have not a moral and intellectual 

 nature is unknown to us, and we speak of pleasure 

 and pain amongst insects (and perhaps also amongst 

 some larger animals), without knowing precisely 

 what we mean — we are compelled to judge by ap- 

 pearances. 



As it was remarked by a writer in this controversy, 

 " we have no means of forming an opinion as to 

 whether insects experience pain at all, except by 

 observing their movements under certain conditions. 

 Erom merely seeing these movements we cannot 

 ascertain what may be the sensations which cause 

 them. Our own feelings can be no criterion of 

 theirs, seeing how essentially different the anatomy 

 of insects is from that of mammalia, and, therefore, 

 we have no starting-point which the two classes 

 have in common, whereby to calculate what amount 

 of feeling the former class has." 



The following recently observed facts, or old 



facts reset, therefore, do most decidedly favour the 

 opinion that insects have comparatively little feel- 

 ing, though its exact amount cannot be computed. 

 We find no central brain, no concentration of 

 nerve-matter, upon which, anatomists tell us, 

 depend all the various sensations experienced by 

 us, and the animals most resembling man. Insects 

 have nerves scattered over their bodies, and united 

 in certain knots or ganglia, yet from these no tele- 

 graphic indications are passed to or received at a 

 central point, be it ever so small. That somewhere 

 in the head of an insect resides a power of volition, 

 whereby the movements of the body are directed, 

 under ordinary circumstances, is most probable. In 

 some way, other than by sight, a caterpillar or a 

 moth, and most insects in fact, are aware of a 

 touch, unless it be very gentle indeed. There is a 

 circulating fluid in insects, which courses not along 

 its channels to and from an ever-beating heart, as 

 we find does the blood, which is emphatically " the 

 life" in mammals and birds. This fluid creeps 

 along, in most insects, rather in the manner of the 

 juices of plants, as observed in their cells. Though 

 it cannot be asserted, therefore, that by this medium 

 no feeling is passed throughout the frame of an 

 insect, we see clearly that it can be but slight. 



Moreover, the readiness with which insects part 

 with their limbs is remarkable. A " daddy-long- 

 legs " {Tipula) shakes off a leg or two at a touch, 

 and walks upon the window-pane thereafter with 

 utter indifference. A dragon-fly will seize and at- 

 tempt to bite a portion of its own abdomen, if it be 

 placed in such a position that it can seize it. Wasps 

 witli the abdomen entirely removed, will regale 

 themselves upon some sweet compound with as 

 much satisfaction as before. If you remove both 

 wings from a fly, without otherwise hurting it, it 

 seems in no wise annoyed, otherwise than by the 

 hindrance to its powers of flying. A beetle of a 

 carnivorous kind, which had been killed (as was 

 supposed) and ckdy placed in the cabinet, was 

 found to have extricated itself from its fastening, 

 and had attacked the carcase of a neighbour. And 

 the struggles which we notice in our operations 

 upon insects for the purpose of killing or securing 

 them for the cabinet, evidently arise, chiefly, if not 

 entirely, from the stoppage of their accustomed 

 movements, to which they are impelled by instiuct. 

 Thus, a leopard moth, fastened down with a pin, 

 was moving its body in all directions, and while 

 endeavouring to escape, would have been said by 

 some to be giving proof of being in great pain. 

 Yet when the pin was withdrawn from the cork, 

 the moth moved a short distance, and then settled 

 down very quietly until evening, not being then 

 apparently affected by the continuance of the pin 

 in its body. So also moths, which have been de- 

 tected in the daytime resting, with outstretched 

 wings, on tree-trunks or palings, have had pins 



