re 
30 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 
_ the study of entomology on the score of cruelty, I shall only add that I do 
not intend them as an apology for other than the most speedy and least 
painful modes of destroying insects. Every degree of unnecessary pain 
becomes cruelty, which I need not assure you I abhor ; and from my own 
observations, however ruthlessly the entomologist may seem to devote the 
few specimens wanted for scientific purposes to destruction, no one in 
ordinary circumstances is less prodigal of insect life. For my own part, I 
uestion whether the drowning individuals, which I have saved from 
estruction, would not far outnumber all that I ever sacrificed to science. 
My next letter will be devoted to the metamorphoses of insects, a subject 
onwhichsome previous explanation isnecessary to enable you to understand 
those distinctions between their different states which will be perpetually 
alluded to in the course of our correspondence ; and having thus clearéd 
the way, I shall afterwards proceed to the consideration of the injuries and 
benefits of which insects are the cause. Tam, &c. 
