So I will briefly try to act as apologist for the "brotherhood of the net," myself included. In the first place, I will state roundly my sincere belief that _insects cannot feel pain_. This is no special pleading, or "making the wish the father to the thought," {51} but a conviction founded on an ample mass of evidence, on my own observations and experiments, and strengthened by analogical reasoning. I wish I had space to lay this evidence in full before the reader; but this being here impracticable, I will not damage the argument by taking a few links out of a chain of facts which depend on their close connexion with each other for their strength and value. There is, however, one fact which may be taken by itself, and goes a long way in our favour, that I must mention here. Insects, when mutilated in a way that would cause excessive pain and speedy death to vertebrate animals, afterwards perform all the functions of life--eating, drinking, &c. with the same evident _gusto_ and power of enjoyment as before. Plenty of striking instances of this are on record, and, as an example, I have seen a wasp that had been snipped in two, afterwards regale himself with avidity upon some red syrup, which, as he imbibed, gathered into a large ruby bead just behind the wings (where the stomach should have been); but really the creature's pleasure seemed to be only augmented by the change in his anatomy, because he could drink ten times his ordinary fill of sweets, without, of course, getting any the fuller. I could almost fancy a scientific epicure envying the insect his ever fresh appetite and gastronomic capabilities. After all that can be said on this subject, there will still probably be misgivings in the mind of many, both {52} as to the question of insect feelings and also as to our right to shorten their existence, even by a painless death. As to the first point, we have now the means of giving any insect an utterly painless quietus, be it capable of feeling pain or no.