A Scientific Slaughterer 45 



This difficulty once removed, another arises, 

 equally serious in a different way. Armed with 

 his scalpel, the anatomist can direct the point 

 of his instrument wherever he thinks fit, in 

 spite of obstacles, for these he can eliminate. 

 The Wasp, on the contrary, has no choice. 

 Her victim is a Beetle in his stout coat of mail ; 

 her lancet is her sting, an extremely delicate 

 weapon which would inevitably be stopped by 

 the horny armour. Only a few points are ac- 

 cessible to the fragile implement, namely, the 

 joints, which are protected merely by an un- 

 resisting membrane. Moreover, the joints of 

 the limbs, though vulnerable, do not in the 

 least fulfil the desired conditions, for the utmost 

 that could be obtained by means of them 

 would be a partial paralysis and not a general 

 paralysis affecting the whole of the motor 

 organism. Without a prolonged struggle, which 

 might be fatal to the patient, without repeated 

 operations, which, if too numerous, might 

 jeopardize the Beetle's life, the Wasp has, if 

 possible, to suppress all power of movement at 

 one blow. It is essential, therefore, that she 

 should aim her sting at the nervous centres, 

 the seat of the motor faculties, whence radiate 

 the nerves scattered over the several organs of 

 movement. Now these sources of locomotion, 

 these nervous centres, consist of a certain 



