ORGANS OF SENSATION. 79 



It is not improbable that each nerve-knot may form 

 the centre of feeling to the parts with which its nerves 

 communicate ; and if this be so, it will afford some 

 explanation of the fact, which is no less singular than 

 it is ascertained beyond question, that insects obvi- 

 ously do not feel so much pain from wounds and in- 

 juries as larger animals. Hence it appears to be, 

 that the abdomen of a wasp or a bee will continue to 

 live, and thrust out the sting, long after it is severed 

 from the body ; and the head of a dragon-fly will eat 

 as voraciously after it is cut off, as if it had to supply 

 an insatiable stomach. The circumstances seem to 

 disprove, in the most decided manner, the humane, 

 though mistaken, opinion of the poet, so often quoted, 

 that 



" The poor beetle which we tread upon 

 In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." 



No giant could kick if his body was cut asunder, 

 yet the bee stings in such circumstances ; no giant 

 could eat voraciously like the dragon-fly when his 

 head is cut off, nor walk about without his head, as a 

 common fly will readily do ; nor after his bowels have 

 been scooped out, as cockchafers often do. 



May it not be that Providence has endowed insects 

 with less acute feelings, in order to lessen their suffer- 

 ings when preyed upon by birds and other animals, 

 for whose food they appear to be mainly intended ? 

 I throw this out as a plausible conjecture. 



I have already briefly described the external ap- 

 pearance of the eyes, and what seem to be the ears ; 

 but it may be useful here to advert again to these and 

 the other organs of the senses. 



The sense of Touch has been by many supposed to 

 reside in the organs I have ventured to call the ears, 

 which have thence been termed feelers, but the evi- 

 dence on which this rests is slight and unsatisfactory ; 



