The Wisdom of Instinct 



bles and jaws move. The drop is swallowed 

 with evident satisfaction, especially after a 

 somewhat prolonged fast. I repeat the dose 

 until it is refused. The meal takes place 

 once a day, sometimes twice, at irregular in- 

 tervals, lest I should become too much of a 

 slave to my patients. Well, one of the 

 Ephippigers lived for twenty-one days on this 

 meagre fare. It was not much, compared 

 with the eighteen days of the one whom I had 

 left to die of starvation. True, the insect 

 had twice had a bad fall, having dropped 

 from the experimenting-table to the floor ow- 

 ing to some piece of awkwardness on my 

 part. The bruises which it received must 

 have hastened its end. The other, which suf- 

 fered no accidents, lived for forty days. As 

 the nourishment employed, sugar-and-water, 

 could not indefinitely take the place of the 

 natural green food, it is very likely that the 

 insect would have lived longer still if the usual 

 diet had been possible. And so the point 

 which I had in view is proved: the victims 

 stung by the Digger-wasps die of starvation 

 and not of their wounds. 



187 



