Much has heen said and written relative to 

 the acuteness of the sensation of pain in insects, 

 and whatever may have a tendency to prevent 

 acts of wanton barbarity ought certainly to be 

 encouraged, as far as it is conformable to truth, 

 but not further. The poet's assertion, that the 

 worm, crushed beneath the foot of the passenger, 

 " feels a pang as great as when a giant dies," 

 cannot be substantiated, and proves nothing, 

 therefore, but that the author declared posi- 

 tively what he merely believed or imagined to 

 be true. My opinion, to the contrary of all this, 

 is founded on such facts as the following. I 

 caught an insect belonging to the present genus, 

 and having impaled it, by passing a pin verti- 

 cally through its body, it escaped from my hand. 

 The pin being light, and no injurious pressure 

 having been exerted on its body, the insect flew, 

 apparently with its usual facility, to a flower, 

 and unrolling its elongated proboscis, proceeded 

 to extract the sweet fluid from the nectary, as if 

 no mortal wound had been inflicted. 



The plant represented in the plate, is the 

 Aquilegia canadensis. 



PLATE 40. 



