Objections and Rejoinders 



them open. On the other hand, the palpi, 

 their very near neighbours, their adjuncts as 

 it were, possess their customary mobility. 

 Without any previous touches, they keep on 

 moving for weeks. In entering the mouth 

 the sting did not reach the cervical gangha, 

 or sudden death would have ensued and we 

 should have before our eyes corpses which 

 would go bad in a few days, instead of fresh 

 carcases in which traces of life remain mani- 

 fest for a long time. The cephalic nerve- 

 centres have been spared. 



What is wounded then, to procure this 

 profound inertia of the poison-fangs? I re- 

 gret that my anatomical knowledge leaves 

 me undecided on this point. Are the fangs 

 actuated by a special ganglion? Are they 

 actuated by fibres issuing from centres exer- 

 cising further functions? I leave to anato- 

 mists equipped with more delicate instru- 

 ments than I the task of elucidating this ob- 

 scure question. The second conjecture ap- 

 pears to me the more probable, because of 

 the palpi, whose nerves, it seems to me, must 

 have the same origin as those of the fangs. 

 Basing our argument on this latter hypoth- 

 esis, we see that the Calicurgus has only 

 one means of suppressing the movement of 

 the poisoned pincers without affecting the 

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