1578 Insects. 



without admitting that it is, Daniel O'Rourke being the only person 

 of whom I have read who has had an opportunity of deciding this 

 point, and he, most provokingly, has left the world in ignorance of 

 that interesting fact. 



I will, however, admit that insects can feel, because I have seen 

 quite sufficient to satisfy my mind on that point ; but, even then, I 

 cannot follow Mr. Wollaston to his conclusion in the following: 

 " Mr. Turner allows that insects feel, and yet he assumes that this 

 sensation is not produced by their being impaled. Now if the first 

 (allowance) be correct, the second (assumption) must be erroneous." 

 Why ? I had been speaking of pain, and in precise language I ought 

 to have written c sensation of pain ' in this place ; but suppose e sensa- 

 tion ' to mean ' feeling/ as Mr. Wollaston makes it, and my words will 

 be — " I allow that insects feel ; but I contend that this feeling is not 

 produced by their being impaled." Certainly not — for if insects pos- 

 sess the sense of feeling at all, they possess it before they are im- 

 paled ; and, therefore, it is not an error to say that it is not produced 

 by their being impaled. This, however, is rather puerile. I really 

 meant ' sensation of pain.' 



There is another instance which — from my language not being suf- 

 ficiently guarded — has afforded Mr. Wollaston a good deal of argu- 

 mentation, viz., where I said, " Impale an insect, and wait until it is 

 roused." My meaning would have been better expressed by saying, 

 " Impale an insect, and rouse it in the day-time ; " but then we 

 should have lost Mr. Wollaston's pleasantry. 



I cannot see anything "unnatural, and therefore erroneous," in 

 supposing that an insect may feel pain under some circumstances and 

 not under others. And I may just mention, that those Noctuge which 

 do not rouse when pierced through with a pin, are often easily roused 

 from apparently less sufficient causes. If the antennae be moved by 

 a pin from their quiescent state, the moth will for the first time, per- 

 haps, merely withdraw them to their former position : if this be done 

 a second time, it will probably strike out its foot at the pin, and show 

 a little irritability ; and by repeating the process, it will become 

 thoroughly roused, though no wound has been inflicted. Again, if 

 the leg of a sleeping Noctua be pinched with a pair of forceps, it will 

 soon give evidence of feeling. 



Let me now observe, that Mr. Guyon's bottle of steamed Colcop- 

 tera, and Mr. Wollaston's hot plate of insects of different orders, 

 however funny their antics may be, are beside the present question, 

 and belong to the general question of insect sensibility. Mesmerism 



