30 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



the study of entomology on the score of cruelty, I shall only add that I do 

 not intend them as an apology for other than the most speedy and least 

 painful modes of destroying insects. Every degree of unnecessary pain 

 becomes cruelty, which I need not assure you I abhor ; and from my own 

 observations, however ruthlessly the entomologist may seem to devote the 

 few specimens wanted for scientific purposes to destruction, no one in 

 ordinary circumstances is less prodigal of insect life. For my own part, I 

 question whether the drowning individuals, which I have saved from 

 destruction, would not far outnumber all that I ever sacrificed to science. 

 My next letter will be devoted to the metamorphoses of insects, a subject 

 on which some previous explanation is necessary to enable you to understand 

 those distinctions between their different states which will be perpetually 

 alluded to in the course of our correspondence ; and having thus cleared 

 the way, I shall afterwards proceed to the consideration of the injuries and 

 benefits of which insects are the cause. I am, &c. 



