194 METHOD OF COLLECTING 
Mr Haworth, in the “ Lepidoptera Britannica,” 
in mentioning the tenacity of life in the Bombyx 
Cossus, or Goat Moth, states, that “ the usual way 
of compressing the thoraa is not sufficient to kill 
this insect. They will live several days after the 
most severe pressure has been given there, to the 
great uneasiness of any humane entomologist. The 
methods of suffocation by tobacco or sulphur, are 
equally inefficacious, unless continued for a greater 
number of hours than is proper for the preservation 
of the specimens. Another method now in practice 
is better, and however fraught with cruelty it may 
appear to the inexperienced collector, is the greatest 
piece of comparative mercy that can, in this case, 
be administered. When the larger moths must be 
killed, destroy them at once by the insertion of a 
strong, red-hot needle into their thickest parts, be- 
ginning at the front of the thorax. If this be pro- 
perly done, instead of lingering through several days, 
they are dead in a moment. It appears to me, 
however, that insects being animals of cold and 
sluggish juices, are not so susceptible of the sensa- 
tions we call pain, as those which enjoy a warmer 
temperature of body, and a swifter circulation of 
the fluids. To the philosophic mind, it is self- 
evident that they have not such acute organs of 
feeling pain, as other animals of a similar size, 
whose juices are endowed with a quicker motion, 
and possess a constant, regular, and genial warmth, 
