Fabre's Writings 



Wasps have discovered this secret, for the 

 prey which they provide for their larvae re- 

 main at their disposal to the end without 

 movement and without deterioration. Do 

 these tiny creatures know intuitively the se- 

 crets of asepsis which Pasteur discovered 

 with so much difficulty? Such was the con- 

 clusion with which Dufour was forced to con- 

 tent himself. He presumed the existence, in 

 the Hunting Wasps, of a virus which was at 

 once a weapon of the chase and a liquid pre- 

 servative, for the immolation and conserva- 

 tion of the victims. But even if aseptic a 

 dead insect would shrivel up into a mummy. 

 Now this must not occur, and as a matter of 

 fact the Wasp's victims remain moist indefi- 

 nitely, just as if alive. And in reality they 

 are not dead; they are still alive. Fabre has 

 demonstrated this by proving the persistence 

 of the organic functions, and by feeding some 

 of them by hand. In short, it is incontest- 

 able that the victims are not put to death but 

 merely deprived of movement, smitten with 

 paralysis. How has this result, more miracu- 

 lous even than asepsis, been obtained by the 

 insect? By the procedure that the most skil- 

 ful physiologist would employ. By plunging 

 its sting into the victim's body, not at ran- 

 dom, which might kill it, but at certain defi- 



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