Objections and Rejoinders 



weapon entered a little to one side, not quite 

 a millimetre from the central point and still, 

 of course, on the line of demarcation between 

 the first two thoracic segments. I at once 

 laid hold of the precious specimen, which was 

 to teach me curious matters about the effects 

 of an ill-delivered stroke. If I myself had 

 made the insect sting at this or that point, 

 there would have been no particular interest 

 in it: the Scolia, held between the finger- 

 tips, would wound at random, like a Bee 

 defending herself; her undirected sting would 

 inject the poison at haphazard. But here 

 everything happened by rule, except for the 

 little error of position. 



Well, the victim of this clumsy operation 

 has its legs paralysed only on the left side, 

 the side towards which the weapon was de- 

 flected; it is a case of hemiplegia. The legs 

 on the right side move. If the operation 

 had been performed in the normal fashion 

 the result would have been sudden inertia of 

 all six legs. The hemiplegia, it is true does 

 not last long. The torpor of the left half 

 rapidly gains the right half of the body and 

 the creature lies motionless, incapable of 

 burying itself in the mould, without, how- 

 ever, realizing the conditions indispensable 

 to the safety of the egg or the young grub. 



355 



