The Glow-Worm 



dition which is no longer life and yet not 

 death, I isolate the patient and, although this 

 is not really necessary to success, I give him 

 a douche which will represent the shower 

 so dear to the able-bodied mollusc. In 

 about a couple of days, my prisoner, but lately 

 injured by the Glow-worm's treachery, is re- 

 stored to his normal state. He revives, in 

 a manner; he recovers movement and sensi- 

 bility. He is affected by the stimulus of a 

 needle ; he shifts his place, crawls, puts out 

 his tentacles, as though nothing unusual had 

 occurred. The general torpor, a sort of 

 deep drunkenness, has vanished outright. 

 The dead returns to life. What name shall 

 we give to that form of existence which, for 

 a time, abolishes the power of movement and 

 the sense of pain? I can see but one that is 

 approximately suitable : anaesthesia. The 

 exploits of a host of Wasps whose flesh- 

 eating grubs are provided with meat that is 

 motionless though not dead * have taught us 

 the skilful art of the paralyzing insect, which 

 numbs the locomotory nerve-centres with its 

 venom. We have now a humble little 

 animal that first produces complete anaes- 



1 Cf. The Hunting Wasps, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos : passim. — Translator's 

 Note. 



