Insects. 1559 



an insect was impaled in a sleeping state ? Its slow circulation and 

 diminished vital force, might, if the operation be done gently, prevent 

 for a long time the creature from rinding out its new position. (I can- 

 not assert this from experience, but it is a concession in favour of Mr. 

 Turner's experiments). Now, judging from Mr. Turner's article, 

 the " slow circulation and diminished vital force " have nothing at all 

 to do with the insect not awaking; for he distinctly expresses his 

 opinion that insects are roused " by the change of position caused by 

 the pressure which it is necessary to exert in impaling them." Now, 

 if this be the reason why they do not awake, he must throw the " slow 

 circulation and diminished vital force " out of the question altogether ; 

 i. e., he must needs assume that the circulation is not slower, and the 

 vital force not diminished during sleep at all, — a theory quite novel 

 and unique ! We all know that, during the season of hybernation, the 

 circulation of animals is so slow as to be scarcely perceptible. I am 

 aware that hybernation is not sleep, and moreover that we know as 

 little of the true nature of the one state as we do of the other; but, so 

 far as circulation is concerned, the first is but an ultra state of the se- 

 cond, the question being merely a question of degree. Thus, for ex- 

 ample, let us take the case of a common dormouse. Of course Mr. 

 Turner will allow that vertebrate animals possess a sense of pain in 

 the very strictest seuse of the word. And yet it is a fact that, when 

 in a state of hybernation, we may do almost anything we please with 

 a dormouse without arousing it. But does this prove that a dormouse 

 has no feeling ? Certainly not. Its feeling is as great as in any other 

 animal of its class ; but its slow circulation, when in a state of hyber- 

 nation, prevented it from discovering the experiments made upon it. 

 It is needless, however, to mention facts like these ; for it is well- 

 known, that in all animals the circulation is slower during hyberna- 

 tion and sleep than at any other time ; and that Mr. Turner cannot 

 possibly throw this grand truth out of the question, even though his 

 own " theories " may tend in the opposite direction. It must be 

 taken into account ; and, having done so, we at once see what an im- 

 portant fact it is towards explaining the huge mystery why animals, in 

 a state of slow circulation and diminished vital force, may have a 

 wound inflicted on them without their knowledge at the time ; and 

 all this without interfering in the least with their sensibility on com- 

 mon and ordinary occasions. I will not appeal to mesmerism to 

 prove that animals of the highest degree of sensibility may exist in 

 states inadmissible to pain, inasmuch as at present too little is known 

 of the subject to be made use of in evidence. But, were we allowed 



