The IVisdom of Instinct 1 59 



always, the action of those formidable pincers 

 must be done away with ; and the fish-hooks 

 of the legs must be rendered incapable of in- 

 creasing their resistance to the process of 

 transport. 



How will the Sphex go to work to obtain 

 this result ? Here man, even the man of 

 science, would hesitate, would waste his time 

 in barren efforts and would perhaps abandon 

 all hope of success. He can come and take one 

 lesson from the Sphex. She, without ever being 

 taught it, without ever seeing it practised by 

 others, understands her surgery through and 

 through. She knows the most delicate mysteries 

 of the physiology of the nerves, or rather she 

 behaves as if she did. She knows that under 

 her victim's skull there is a circlet of nervous 

 nuclei, something similar to the brain of the 

 higher animals. She knows that this main 

 centre of innervation controls the action of the 

 mouth-parts and moreover is the seat of the 

 will, without whose orders not a single muscle 

 acts ; lastly, she knows that, by injuring this 

 sort of brain, she will cause all resistance to 

 cease, the insect no longer possessing any will 

 to resist. As for the mode of operating, this is 

 the easiest matter in the world to her ; and, 

 when we have been taught in her school, we are 

 free to try her process in our turn. The instru- 



