114 John Bach man. 



fill current of prejudice. A little knowledge of En- 

 tomology might have satisfied the destroyers of those 

 beautiful works of God, that the larva they so much 

 dreaded was harmless, and that it would soon as- 

 sume a chrysalis form, and after lying inactive for 

 a short time, would put on wings of a brilliant hue, 

 flit joyously on the air, and live on the nectar of 

 flowers. 



But an objection has been urged against this study, 

 which the lovers of science are anxious to combat, 

 viz: that as it requires death to be inflicted upon 

 its subjects, therefore they charge us with inhu- 

 manity. Cruelty consists in torturing or destroying 

 any living thing from mere wantonness, without a 

 useful end in view. The entomologist does not do 

 this. His insects, by processes which science has 

 taught him, are almost instantaneously killed. 



He does not agree with the sentiment expressed 

 by the poet : 



" The poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal suffrance, feels a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." 



His knowledge convinces him that this contains 

 more poetry than truth. An examination of the 

 internal system of insects must convince us, that 

 they possess less sensibility than even the tortoise, 

 which is known to walk after its head has been sep- 

 arated from his body. The silk-worm and other of 

 the lepidopterous family, after being deprived of 

 both legs and wings, will not only deposit their 

 eggs, as if nothing had occurred, but will also live 

 on. Besides the period of an insect life, when it is 

 procured for the cabinet of the entomologist, is 

 almost the last stage of its existence. The butterfly 

 would have perished in a few days, and the coleop- 

 terous insect would not long have survived. Let 



