Ill 



indisputable signs of torture. But let us examine a little 

 further into this. Let us examine whether they will not 

 voluntarily, in their search after prey or from other causes, 

 undergo what would be far greater pain than our handling, 

 if any existed at all. 



" It is well known that leeches cannot be confined in any 

 vessel that is closed by a simple lid : they will insinuate their 

 bodies under a pressure of many pounds. In corroboration of 

 tins fact I may state, that I once placed six leeches, that had 

 gorged themselves to repletion with blood, in a tumbler glass 

 half filled with water ; over this, completely stopping up all 

 egress, I placed three books, whose weight I have ascertained 

 to be nine pounds; yet twenty- four hours had not elapsed 

 before one of the animals had disappeared, leaving no trace 

 behind. The next night another disappeared ; soon afterwards 

 a third ; and so on till one only remained behind, which was 

 thrown away. 



" The power of caterpillars to escape in this way is well 

 known; and there is a remarkable instance mentioned in the 

 Pictorial Museum of Animated Nature, where one is pictured 

 crawling from under a bell-glass sustaining a weight of thirty 

 pounds. 



"Surely if such an amount of squeezing is borne volun- 

 tarily, the slight touch inflicted by an observer's hands cannot 

 be attended with the pain which might by many be supposed. 



"Let us hear what Eymer Jones says upon this subject. 

 When speaking of the absence of pain in articulata, he 

 remarks — 



" ' How far the feeling of pain is acutely developed in the 

 animals we are now considering is deducible from every day 

 observation. The fly seized by the leg will leave its linib be- 

 hind, and alight with unconcern to regale upon the nearest 

 sweets within its reach. The caterpillar enjoys, to all appear - 

 ance, ;i tranquil existence, while the larvae of the ichneumon, 

 hatched in its body, devour its very viscera; and in the crus- 



