Insects. 1579 



too, and hybernation, are equally irrelevant. Neither is the lady who 

 swallowed the pin a case in point, for I was glad to find that her pain 

 does not return at intervals, as it does to impaled moths, if struggles 

 imply pain. 



Reject, then, these and other extraneous matter, and little will re- 

 main to be noticed beyond what I have already stated, viz.> slow cir- 

 culation, diminished vital force, and analogy. 



Now if, as I suppose, vital force means vitality, I must say that I 

 cannot admit that it is diminished during sleep ; because I do not con- 

 sider that an insect is less alive when asleep than when awake, though 

 there may be fewer signs of animation. 



As to circulation during sleep, I am told by those who ought to 

 know that in the human frame there is a difference, but so little that 

 it is barely perceptible ; and therefore, in all probability, the difference 

 is not very great in insects. 



I believe it is an established fact, that the circulation in insects is 

 slower than in man ; but I suppose it is pretty much the same for the 

 same order of insects — Lepidoptera for instance. If, then, this be 

 the cause of their remaining quiet when impaled, how is it that some 

 find out their unpleasant situation so much sooner than others ? 



Analogy I purposely passed over, because I was not sure that the 

 manner in which pain is produced in man is analogous to that in in- 

 sects ; in fact, I thought it could not. Had I thought it is, I should 

 most assuredly have impaled Mr. John Smith, or some other luckless 

 wight, merely to confirm what I had arrived at from other con- 

 siderations. 



I fully admit the analogy between the legs and eyes, because they 

 evidently have similar functions in both ; and if either man or insect 

 were deprived of legs, the power of walking would cease : so, also, 

 the loss of eyes in either would be attended with the loss of sight ; 

 and probably, for I cannot speak positively, if a man were deprived of 

 half his nerves he would die in agony under the operation, and yet 

 there appear well-authenticated instances of insects losing the greater 

 part of what is called their nerves, without appearing to experience 

 any very great inconvenience. 



To these I may add the following extraordinary case, which oc- 

 curred to myself last month. I found an example of Xylina Lambda, 

 which I took home, and pierced the underside of the thorax with a 

 quill, dipped in a solution of oxalic acid, as strong as it can be made. 

 This generally produces almost instant death, which I believed to be 

 the case in the present instance, for all the legs were drawn up, and 



