96 COLLOQUIA ENTOMOLOGICA. 



is a collected, a concentrated mass, enclosed within a bony 

 skull, and situated at the anterior extremity of the vertebral 

 column ; in insects, on the contrary, it is in — 



Erro. — two nodules 



Ent. Pish ! hush ! excuse me, Roey, hear me speak — 'tis 

 no such thing, the brain is omnipresent; it is diffused, in 

 ramifications, from the thorax to every extremity. Now, in 

 vertebrates, from the brain emanate the nerves or organs of 

 sensation. In insects, the brain and nerves, I firmly believe, 

 are one and the same thing, — so — 

 Erro. Reaum — 



Ent. My dear fellow, allow me. — I am well aware that 

 Reaumur thought differently ; and that in this, all his copiers 

 have followed him : and so they would had he represented one 

 hind leg to contain the brain and another the nerves ; but this 

 is nothing to my purpose. I am not now going to propose, 

 much less press, a new theory on that subject ; yet mark me : — 

 in vertebrates, an injury to the brain destroys feeling. Ask 

 all the surgeons : they will readily convince you of this. Here, 

 then, is proof positive that sensation emanates from, and is 

 dependent on the brain. We will allow an insect, for argu- 

 ment's sake, all the acuteness of sensation the most tender- 

 hearted would wish : — you, who were this moment going to 

 quote Reaumur against me, must now abide by him : you will 

 find your horrible weapon — 

 Erro. 



Monstnim hoiTendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum. 



Ent. Either listen, or translate your ideas into the vernacular. 



Erro. Monstru?n, a stocking-needle ; horrendum, rusted ; 

 informe, bent; inge?is, as big as a Grecian javelin : cui lumen 

 ademptum, broken off just below the eye. 



Ent. I suppose that's wit ! Ought I to laugh ? But 

 laughter increases wit, as watering a plant makes it grow. 

 Well, you will find this horrible pin, or needle if you like it 

 better, passes through the very sensorium, — the chief seat 

 of the ganglions, — their union, their centre, their nucleus, — 

 and thus gets foul of the main cerebral masses, and, carrying 

 them away on its point through the insect, leaves them, 

 perhaps, some considerable depth in the cork. Now this 

 disruption, — this annihilation of brain, — must destroy the 

 sensitive property of all nerves emanating from or centering in 



