Insects. 1577 



Now what I advanced at first, and still maintain, is, that the 

 struggles of impaled insects cannot proceed from pain. All Mr. 

 Newman's instances, so opportunely published, strongly corroborate 

 this position. My prejudices were once so strong in the opposite 

 direction that, for some time, I ceased to be a collector : it was mere 

 chance that led me to examine the matter more closely; and I now 

 impale an insect without any serious compunction. 



I confined myself to Nature, and observed facts. I found — that 

 nocturnal Lepidoptera which .sit with their bodies close to the sub- 

 stance on which they rest, may be impaled, and remain motionless, 

 for hours, I believe the whole day ; that at night, when they would 

 begin to fly, they struggle, and probably continue to do so, more or 

 less, through the night ; that the next day they are perfectly still 

 again ; and so on alternately : that in diurnal Lepidoptera the reverse 

 takes place ; they struggle in the day, whenever the sun's rays are 

 admitted to them, and remain quiescent at night : that if an impaled 

 Noctua be roused during the day, and the pin be then withdrawn, the 

 insect, for the most part, immediately composes itself as if nothing 

 had happened : that nocturnal Lepidoptera are with more difficulty 

 impaled, and more easily roused, according as they sit, when in re- 

 pose, with their bodies more or less raised from the substance on 

 which they rest. I have rarely been able to pierce any species of 

 Triphaena, and never could succeed with any of Eudorea or Ptero- 

 phorus. This brief recapitulation is necessary, for the purpose of 

 (by and by) testing the results by analogy. 



I have very carefully read, and have been very much amused — even 

 at my own expense — with Mr. Wollaston's interesting communication ; 

 but I do not find that it contains anything to disprove the conclusion 

 which I have drawn, though I do find myself charged with leaving 

 out of the question several important considerations. A great deal of 

 it — however interesting in other respects — has, I think, nothing to do 

 with the question at issue. 



I do not, indeed I dare not, deny a sense of feeling to insects ; but, 

 I believe, I have never admitted it in the c Zoologist:' a point on 

 which Mr. Wollaston has fallen into error. I said — " neither do I 

 deny that insects do not feel at all ; " but Mr. Wollaston makes me 

 admit that they feel : which two expressions are not quite equivalent. 

 Not to deny any proposition simply implies that it may be true or 

 false ; that, in fact, I know nothing about it : but to admit a proposi- 

 tion implies that I have good reasons for believing it to be true. For 

 instance, 1 might not deny that the moon is made of green cheese, 

 v C 



