A Scientific Slaughterer 



notion of an antiseptic fluid and admit that, 

 despite its perfect immobility, the insect is 

 not really dead, that it still retains a glimmer 

 of life, which for some time to come keeps 

 the organs in their normal condition of fresh- 

 ness, but gradually fades out, until at last 

 it leaves them the prey of corruption. Be- 

 sides, in some cases, the ammonia does not 

 produce complete annihilation of movement 

 except in the insect's legs; and then, as the 

 deleterious action of the liquid has doubtless 

 not extended far enough, the antennas pre- 

 serve a remnant of mobility and we see the 

 insect, even more than a month after the 

 inoculation, draw them back quickly at the 

 least touch: a convincing proof that life has 

 not entirely deserted the inanimate body. 

 This movement of the antennae is also not 

 uncommon in the Weevils wounded by the 

 Cerceris. 



In every case, the injection of ammonia at 

 once stops all movement in Scarabs, Weevils 

 and Buprestes ; but we do not always succeed 

 in reducing the insect to the condition just 

 described. If the wound be too deep, if the 

 drop administered be too strong, the victim 

 really dies; and, in two or three days' time, 

 we have nothing but a putrid body before us. 

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