1558 Insects. 



six summers, and always with the same result. Place a bottle of Co- 

 leoptera (even in a sleeping state) in warm water, and, singularly 

 enough, in a moment, according to the spirit of Mr. Turner's theory, 

 they are seized with a sudden desire " to escape " ! They rush fu- 

 riously backwards and forwards, — they writhe, apparently in the 

 greatest agony, and in less than a minute they are all dead. It is cu- 

 rious that they should wish so suddenly " to escape," — for, as Mr. 

 Guyon philosophically adds, the expansion of the glass gives them 

 positively rather more room to walk about in than before ; so that 

 their sphere for action would be larger ! Hence, we are driven (be it 

 even against our will) to infer that the great, commotion which has 

 just taken place, was truly the result of some mighty sensations (call it 

 what we please) and not from a sudden desire to escape. Place any 

 number of insects, of whatever order you choose to select, on a cold 

 plate, and let them remain there, uncovered, until they are quiescent. 

 Let the plate be so situated that you can apply some warming agent 

 beneath it without disturbing its position. Begin the experiment, 

 and you will experience the most exquisite piece of fun imaginable. 

 Halticae immediately hop twice as far as they ever did before, — Ela- 

 teridse bound and crack like parched peas in a frying-pan, — Brachely- 

 tra scamper frantically over the edges of the plate, — Harpalidae rush 

 off as quick as their legs can carry them, — and all orders and deno- 

 minations "make themselves scarce" as rapidly as possible; and yet, 

 if Mr. Turner's theory be correct, this is not the result of pain ! I al- 

 low that these are not parallel cases with the pinning of Lepidoptera, 

 but, in the question under consideration, they are as directly to the 

 point. They are strong proofs that insects of all denominations, not 

 only " possess feeling," but also a sense of pain, though this truth be 

 elicited from them under different circumstances. Indeed, the very 

 instances brought forward by Mr. Turner himself, seem to me to tell 

 a similar tale, in a manner perfectly natural and in proportion to the 

 causes he applies. For mark now what would be the natural progress 

 of an insect in an impaled state ; and then let us compare it with Mr. 

 Turner's own example and see in what points they differ. But,* be- 

 fore doing so, let us not forget that the greatest advocates of insect 

 sensibility, do not give them any extreme sense of pain. In avoiding 

 the rocks of " Scylla," they are too wise to fall into the opposite 

 " Charybdis." They do not assert that insects possess as much sensi- 

 bility as we do ourselves, nor even half as much ; they merely contend 

 that they do possess it, and that too, in proportion to their position in 

 the Animal Kingdom. Hence, what would be the natural effect when 



