126 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



this mode the fisherman kills the salmon captured in his wear, 

 and a single blow, when well directed, is always sufficient ; 

 but no single blow has the same effect on the earthworm ; 

 and here it was vitality in the inferior portion of the reptile, 

 the earthworm portion of it, if I may so speak, that re- 

 fused to participate in the state of syncope into which the 

 vitality of the superior portion had been thrown. The nice 

 and delicate vitality of the brain seems to impart to the whole 

 system in connection with it an aptitude for dying suddenly, 

 a susceptibility of instant death, which would be wanting 

 without it. The heart of the rabbit continues to beat regu- 

 larly long after the brain has been removed by careful exci- 

 sion, if respiration be artificially kept up ; but if, instead of 

 amputating the head, the brain be crushed in its place by a 

 sudden blow of a hammer, the heart ceases its motion at once. 

 And such seemed to be the principle illustrated here. But 

 why the agonized dancing on the sward of the inferior part 

 of the reptile ? why its after painful writhing and wriggling ? 

 The young eel scooped from the stream, whose motions it 

 resembled, is impressed by terror, and can feel pain ; was it 

 also impressed by terror, or susceptible of suffering ? We see 

 in the case of both exactly the same signs, the dancing, the 

 writhing, the wriggling ; but are we to interpret them after 

 the same manner ? In the small red-headed earthworm di- 

 vided by Spalanzani, that in three months got upper extre- 

 mities to its lower part, and lower extremities, in as many 

 weeks, to its upper part, the dividing blow must have dealt 

 duplicate feelings, pain and terror to the portion below, and 

 pain and terror to the portion above, so far, at least, as a 

 creature so low'in the scale was susceptible of these feelings ; 

 but are we to hold that the leaping, wriggling tail of the rep- 

 tile possessed in any degree a similar susceptibility 1 I can 

 propound the riddle, but who shall resolve it ? It may be 

 added, that this brown lizard was the only recent saurian I 



