Chap. 2.J INSECTS. 3 



study of Nature, there are none of her works that are unworthy 

 of our consideration. 



CHAP. 2. (3.) WHETHER INSECTS RESPIRE, AND WHETHER 



THEY HAVE BLOOD. 



Many authors deny that insects respire, 5 and make the 

 assertion upon the ground, that in their viscera there is no 

 respiratory organ to be found. On this ground, they assert 

 that insects have the same kind of life as plants and trees, 

 there being a very great difference between respiring and merely 

 having life. On similar grounds also, they assert that insects 

 have no blood, a thing which cannot exist, they say, in any 

 animal that is destitute of heart and liver ; just as, according 

 to them, those creatures cannot breathe which have no lungs. 

 Upon these points, however, a vast number of questions will 

 naturally arise ; for the same writers do not hesitate to deny 

 that these creatures are destitute also of voice, 6 and this, 

 notwithstanding the humming of bees, the chirping of grass- 

 hoppers, and the sounds emitted by numerous other insects 

 which will be considered in their respective places. For my 

 part, whenever I have considered the subject, I have ever felt 

 persuaded that there is nothing impossible to Nature, nor. do I 

 see why creatures should be less able to live and yet not 

 inhale, than to respire without being possessed of viscera, a 

 doctrine which I have already maintained, when speaking 7 of 

 the marine animals; and that, notwithstanding the density 

 and the vast depth of the water which would appear to impede 

 all breathing. But what person could very easily believe that 

 there can be any creatures that fly to and fro, and live in the 

 very midst of the element of respiration, while, at the same time, 

 they themselves are devoid of that respiration ; that they can 

 be possessed of the requisite instincts for nourishment, gene- 

 ration, working, and making provision even for time to come, 

 in the enjoyment too (although, certainly, they are not pos- 

 sessed of the organs which act, as it were, as the receptacles 



5 They respire by orifices in the sides of the hody, known to naturalists 

 as stigmata. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms, in a measure, a system of 

 lungs. 



6 Cuvier remarks that the various noises made by insects are in reality 

 not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx. 



? 13. Lx. c. G. 



E 2 



