An essay on the beneficent distribution of the sense of pain / by G.A. Rowell.

  • George Augustus Rowell
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the beneficent distribution of the sense of pain / by G.A. Rowell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (and such as would be pleasing to most other creatures,) they seem in misery. That worms are so highly sensitive may be seen in other ways; the most minute portion of salt (which is so grateful to the human taste) will produce ap¬ parently intolerable pain if dropped on a worm, and a like effect will follow from the application of a mere particle of quick lime. It may appear inconsistent to attribute so high a degree of sensibility to worms from these causes, and doubt their susceptibility of pain from mutilation ; but such I believe is the case, and that this also is evidence of merciful design : worms are naturally liable to mutilation from the animals that prey on them, and the division of a worm does not destroy its life; but exposure to dry air, or the sun, or the effect of salt or lime, they are only liable to from the agency of man ; and by any of these means the worm may be destroyed. With respect to the absence of the sense of pain in in¬ sects, I have seen a wasp eat a fly almost immediately after a portion of its abdomen had been cut off; I have also seen a cockchafer crawling and eating on a hedge, after its abdo¬ men had been emptied of its viscera, probably by some bird; and a stag-beetle (lucanus cerms, Shaw) has been caught while flying in the like condition. It is well known that the dragon-fly (libellula varia, Shaw) will eat freely while confined by a pin through its body; and every one who has collected entomological specimens, must know the difficulty there is in killing some of the larger moths, as the tenacity of life in these creatures is truly surprising. I will give one case illustrative of the tenacity of life in beetles, as it is singular, although not exactly bearing on the sub¬ ject in question. A dead toad was taken to be stuffed by the person who preserves the animals for the Museum ; this was on the Wednesday morning; the toad was not skinned till the Friday evening, when, as toads swallow their prey whole, the contents of the stomach were turned into a basin of water, and remained there till the Saturday evening; several small beetles were then taken from it, and pinned down as specimens for a cabinet, and on the Mon¬ day morning some of them were found to have revived, and
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