6624 



Crustacea. 



It is the opinion of many naturalists that there is no analogy 

 between any of the ganglia of this class of animals and the brain of 

 the higher forms ; that in fact these animals live with scarcely a con- 

 sciousness of their existence ; that their nervous system represents 

 only the spinal cord iu the Vertebrata ; — thus depriving the animal 

 not only of feeling, but, as it seems to us, of all those powers which 

 make existence an enjoyment; for the arguments that are made use 

 of to prove the deficiency of any one faculty must possess the same 

 amount of importance in relation to the others. 



It is a pleasant thing for the naturalist to believe that the animal he 

 wishes to impale in his collection does not, upon being killed, 



" Feel a pang as great as when a giant dies." 



No doubt but that feeling, as every other sense, is much reduced, and 

 that a Crustacean cannot hear, taste or smell as animals endowed 

 with a higher nervous system ; but it is hard to believe that pain is 

 unknown to this class of animals ; and against the hard negative evi- 

 dence deduced from a study of the structure we must place that 

 which is demonstrable from the habits of the living creature. 



It is true that certain animals, as the ant and the wasp, may lose 

 the body without, apparently, being conscious of the fact, and go on 

 without interruption in their present occupation. I have a friend who 

 was shot in the excitement of a naval engagement, the ball entering 

 near the waist and traversing the circumference of the body just 

 beneath the skin, and who was not aware of the circumstance until 

 he grew faint from the loss of blood. No one, I presume, will argue 

 that therefore he was not susceptible to pain. 



The crab will, upon receipt of an injury in any of its limbs, throw 

 off the whole member, that a new one may grow : are we therefore to 

 infer that it suffered no pain from the original wound, or in the ampu- 

 tation because the act is voluntary ? but rather should we not insist 

 that it was suffering that induced it to inflict the otherwise rash act 

 of mutilation ? That this is the case, we may infer the more decidedly 

 from experimental evidence. In order to make observations I pro- 

 cured a number of young crabs. These I used to treat often un- 

 kindly. I would, with a pair of scissors, cut off a leg or an arm ; but 

 the animals were very adroit, as if they knew of my intention ; and 

 hard work I had to catch a limb between the savage blades, and when 

 it was there it would frequently escape again before the blades were 

 closed. Immediately the limb is injured it is thrown off by a violent 



