56 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



the peculiar organization of insects, which strongly fa- 

 vours the idea I am inculcating, but which will be con- 

 sidered more properly in another place, their sang froid 

 upon the loss of their limbs, even those that we account 

 most necessary to life, irrefragably proves that the pain 

 they suffer cannot be very acute. Had a giant lost an 

 arm or a leg, or were a sword or spear run through his 

 body, he would feel no great inclination for running 

 about, dancing, or eating. Yet a crane-fly ( Tvpula) will 

 leave half its legs in the hands of an unlucky boy who 

 has endeavoured to catch it, and will fly here and there 

 with as much agility and unconcern as if nothing had 

 happened to it ; and an insect impaled upon a pin will 

 often devour its prey with as much avidity as when at 

 liberty. Were a giant eviscerated, his body divided in 

 the middle, or his head cut off, it would be all over with 

 him ; he would move no more ; he would be dead to the 

 calls of hunger ; or the emotions of fear, anger, or love. 

 Not so our insects. I have seen the common cockchafer 

 walk about with apparent indifference after some bird 

 had nearly emptied its body of its viscera : a humble- 

 bee will eat honey with greediness though deprived of 

 its abdomen ; and I myself lately saw an ant, which had 

 been brought out of the nest by its comrades, walk when 

 deprived of its head. The head of a wasp will attempt 

 to bite after it is separated from the rest of the body ; 

 and the abdomen under similar circumstances, if the 

 finger be moved to it, will attempt to sting. And, what 

 is more extraordinary, the headless trunk of a male 

 Mantis has been known to unite itself to the other sex a . 



a Dr. Smith's Tow, i. 162. Journ. de Phys. xxv. 336. 



