The Life of the Caterpillar 



the nests to extract their populations for the 

 purpose of my researches; but I have never 

 been inconvenienced. Save in exceptional cir- 

 cumstances, the approach of the moult per- 

 haps, this would need a skin less tough than 

 mine. 



The thin skin of a child does not enjoy the 

 same immunity, as witness little Paul, who, 

 having helped me to empty some nests and to 

 collect the inhabitants with my forceps, was 

 for hours scratching his neck, which was dot- 

 ted with red wheals. My ingenuous assistant 

 was proud of his sufferings in the cause of 

 science, which resulted from heedlessness and 

 also perhaps from bravado. In twenty-four 

 hours, the trouble disappeared, without leav- 

 ing any serious consequences. 



All this hardly tallies with the painful ex- 

 periences of which the woodcutters talk. Do 

 they exaggerate? That is hardly credible; 

 they are so unanimous. Then something must 

 have been lacking in my experiments : the pro- 

 pitious moment apparently, the proper degree 

 of maturity in the caterpillar, the high tem- 

 perature which aggravates the poison. 



To show itself in its full severity, the urtica- 

 tion demands the cooperation of certain un- 

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