5527 Crustacea. 



truth is of more value to man than the existence of myriads of small 

 worms. But it is not on this account that I can blind ray eyes to the 

 demonstrative fact, that much of the contortions set up by these crea- 

 tures can be accounted for upon no other hypothesis than that of 

 suffering. It is true that a crab appears happy enough when its leg 

 is off, but I have no doubt that it was suffering that instinctively 

 made him get rid of it. We know that, in the human frame, upon 

 the removal of an injui'ed or diseased part the pain is considerably 

 reduced, if not wholly removed, as is demonstrated by the extraction 

 of an aching tooth : this is a forcible and not a voluntary act, as 

 in the Crustacea. 



There can be little doubt that the amount of pain which these 

 creatures feel is very little, in fact, on a par with their consciousness 

 in respect to their senses generally ; but we can hardly believe that a 

 limb is thrown off but from an instinctive feeling to relieve pain. 

 It is true that they are stated to throw off their limbs at the report of 

 cannon or the sound of thunder, and Mr. Gosse tells us that fisher- 

 men often experience that, upon catching hold of a lobster in his den, 

 it retires further within the secure recesses, and leaves a claw in his 

 hand. There can be little doubt that this last is the result of 

 fear, an act instinctive of self-preservation. With regard to the 

 former it can only be accounted for as the result of terror, but 

 the cases, as stated by Mr. Bell, are such as to induce us to think that 

 it may have been the result of other causes. In a passage in a 

 thunder-storm across the North Sea, the tossing of the ship and rough 

 usage must have a deteriorative influence upon confined and half-dead 

 lobsters, sufficient to account for the phenomenon without attributing 

 it to the influence of the thunder. 



In the habits of these creatures there is another feature which, 

 though it may be more or less common to other tribes, has here 

 arrived at its culminating point. The removal of the external dermal 

 tissue appears an universal law in creation ; in some it may remain 

 attached as a perennial epidermis that may thicken upon the surface 

 as a protecting medium ; in others it is brushed away in small but 

 constant quantities; again it is removed as an entire covering, but in 

 no class of animals do we find it so perfectly removed as in the 

 Crustacea. 



In reptiles the skin is torn off as a whole. The toad is said to do 

 it by drawing it bit by bit into its mouth, and then spitting it out as a 

 ball; from the frog it strips off as a thin membrane, almost invisible 

 in its transparency^, and floats away in the water; but in Crustacea it 



