280 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



The lobster is said to shake off its claws at 

 the sound of thunder or on the report of a cannon ; 

 and it is extremely probable that the act of so 

 doing gives little or no pain. Their limbs are 

 often lost or injured. A large crab on seizing a 

 small one is capable of destroying its claws, and 

 such mutilations must be fatal to the creature 

 unless some provision be made to meet the 

 exigency. The crab or lobster, therefore, is able 

 to throw oif the injured limb, and, according to 

 the ablest comparative anatomists, it does so for 

 two purposes, to stop the excessive flow of blood 

 from the injured part and to lay bare the organ 

 which reproduces the limb. The bleeding ceases 

 whenever the damaged part is cast off, and a new 

 limb shortly makes its appearance, and although 

 at first it is much smaller than the other limbs, 

 it attains its full dimensions on the first occasion 

 of moulting. 



If the hypothesis be correct that the crab 

 suffers little or no pain on being injured, it is a 

 circumstance which, combined with the marvellous 

 reproduction of the limbs, cannot but be con- 

 sidered, in the case of a creature so much exposed 

 to injury, as an instance of the benevolence which 

 is so conspicuous in the designs of Infinite Wisdom 

 and Goodness. 



