A Scientific Slaughterer 51 



ceived theoretic notions have not obscured the 

 actual facts, whether, in short, the pen have 

 not described imaginary marvels. No scien- 

 tific conclusion is firmly established until it has 

 received confirmation by means of practical 

 tests, carried out in every variety of way. We 

 will therefore subject to experimental proof the 

 physiological operation of which the Great Cer- 

 ceris has just apprised us. If it be possible to 

 obtain artificially what the Wasp obtains with 

 her sting, namely, the abolition of movement 

 and the continued preservation of the patient 

 in a perfectly fresh condition ; if it be possible 

 to work this wonder with the Beetles hunted 

 by the Cerceris, or with those presenting a 

 similar nervous centralization, while we are un- 

 successful with Beetles whose ganglia are far 

 apart, then we shall be bound to admit, how- 

 ever hard to please we may be in the matter of 

 tests, that in the unconscious inspiration of her 

 instinct the Wasp has all the resources of con- 

 summate art. Let us see what experiment has 

 to tell us. 



The operating method is of the simplest. It 

 is a question of taking a needle, or, better and 

 more convenient, the point of a fine steel nib, 

 and introducing a tiny drop of some corrosive 

 fluid into the thoracic motor centres, by prick- 

 ing the insect slightly at the junction of the 



