398 PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. 



most vital part of the creation, instant death en- 

 sues. A crowquill must be shaped into a point, 

 like a rather long pen, this point dipped into the 

 prussic acid, and an incision made with it imme- 

 diately beneath the head into the middle of the 

 shoulders of the creature, so as to permit the fluid 

 it contains to enter into the body of the insect. 

 Immediately after this, in every instance in which 

 I have tried it, a privation of sensation appears to 

 take place, the corporeal action of the creature 

 ceasing, a feeble tremulous motion of the antennae 

 being alone perceptible ; and these parts seem to 

 be the last fortress that is abandoned by sensation, 

 as they are the primary principle of sensibility 

 when life is perfect: extinction of animation en- 

 sues, not a mere suspension, but an annihilation of 

 every power, muscular and vital. As one example 

 of the decisive effects of this fluid, I shall instance 

 the common wasp, a creature so remarkably tena- 

 cious of sensation, or so long retaining a muscular 

 power, that it may remain, as every one knows, for 

 days crushed in the window, an apparently dead 

 insect, yet upon pressing the head, the sting will 

 be so protruded as to give a very sensible pain to 

 the finger it should meet with ; but upon the 

 prussic acid being injected into this creature as 

 above, when in full vigour, in the course of less 

 than half a minute a loss of vitality ensues, the 

 action of the muscular fibre ceases altogether, and 

 no pressure can incite it again into action. The 

 sudden effect of this liquor is not so generally 



