OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



45 



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 circum- 

 stances, 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 "Illustrations of British 

 Entomology," 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 off and 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 orders of animals, which Providence has en- 

 dowed 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 sufler, 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. 



1 Dr. Smith's Tour, i. 162, Jonrn. de Pliys. xxv. 336. 



2 Stephens in Ent. Mag. i. 518. 



