Chap. 2.] 
INSECTS. 
3 
study of jS'ature, there are none of her works that are unworthy 
of our consideration. 
CHAP. 2. (3.) WHETHEE INSECTS EESPIRE, AND WHETHER 
THEY HA YE BLOOD. 
Many authors deny that insects respire,^ and make the 
assertion upon the ground, that in their viscera there is no 
respiratory organ to be found. On this ground, they assert 
that insects have the same kind of life as plants and trees, 
there being a very great difference between respiring and merely 
having life. On similar grounds also, they assert that insects 
have no blood, a thing which cannot exist, they say, in any 
animal that is destitute of heart and liver ; just as, according 
to them, those creatures cannot breathe which have no lungs. 
Upon these points, however, a vast number of questions will 
naturally arise ; for the same writers do not hesitate to deny 
that these creatures are destitute also of voice,^ and this, 
notwithstanding the humming of bees, the chirping of grass- 
hoppers, and the sounds emitted by numerous other insects 
which will be considered in their respective places. For mj 
part, whenever I have considered the subject, I have ever felt 
persuaded that there is nothing impossible to JSTature, nor do I 
see why creatures should be less able to live and yet not 
inhale, than to respire without being possessed of viscera, a 
doctrine which I have already maintained, when speaking" of 
the marine animals; and that, notwithstanding the densitj^ 
and the vast depth of the water which would appear to impede 
all breathing. Eut what person could very easily believe that 
there can be any creatures that fly to and fro, and live in the 
very midst of the element of respiration, while, at the same time, 
they themselves are devoid of that respiration ; that they can 
be possessed of the requisite instincts for nourishment, gene- 
ration, working, and making provision even for time to come, 
in the enjoyment too (although, certainly, they are not pos- 
sessed of the organs which act, as it were, as the receptacles 
5 They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to naturalists 
as stigmata. The whole body, Citvier says, forms, in a measure, a system of 
lungs. 
6 Cuvier remarks that the various noises made by insects are in reality 
not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx. 
7 E. ix. c. 6. 
