OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 29 
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 
cock-chafer walk about with apparent indifference after some bird had 
nearly emptied its body of its viscera: an 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 cir- 
cumstances, 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; and a dragon-fly to eat its own tail, as 
we learn from J. F. Stephens, Esq., author of the valuable ‘ Ilustrations , 
of British Entomology,” who, while entomologising near Whittleseamere, 
having directed the tail of one of these insects which he had caught to its 
mouth, to make an experiment whether the known voracity of the tribe 
would lead it to bite itself, saw to his astonishment that it actually bit offand 
ate the four terminal segments of its body, and then by accident escaping 
flew away as briskly as ever!® These facts, out of hundreds that might be 
adduced, are surely sufficient to prove that insects do not experience the 
same acute sensations of pain with the higher order of animals, which 
Providence has endowed with more ample means of avoiding them. And 
since they were to be exposed so universally to attack and injury, this is a 
most merciful provision in their favour; for, were it otherwise, considering 
the wounds, and dismemberments, and lingering deaths that insects often 
suffer, what a vast increase would there be of the general sum of pain and 
misery! You will now, I think, allow that the most humane person need 
not hesitate a moment whether he shall devote himself to the study of 
Entomology on account of any cruelty attached to the pursuit. 
But if some morbid sentimentalist should still exclaim, “ Oh! but I 
cannot persuade myself, even for scientific purposes, to inflict the slightest 
degree of pain upon the most insensible of creatures —” Pray, sir or 
madam, I would ask, should your green-house be infested by Aphides, or 
your grapery by the semianimate Coccus, would this extreme of tenderness 
induce you to restrict your gardener from destroying them? Are you 
willing to deny yourself these unnecessary gratifications, and to resign your 
favourite flowers and fruit at the call of your fine feelings ? Or will you 
give up the shrimps, which by their relish enable you to play a better part 
with your bread and butter at breakfast, and thus, instead of adding to it, 
contribute to diminish the quantity of food? If not, I shall only desire 
you to recollect that, for a mere personal indulgence, you cause the death 
of an infinitely greater number of animals than all the entomologists in the 
world destroy for the promotion of science. 
To these considerations, which I have no doubt you will think conclusive 
as to the unreasonableness and inconsistency of the objections made against 
1 Dr. Smith’s Tour, i162. Journ. de Phys xxv. 386, 
2 Stephens in Znt, Mag. i. 518. 
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