Many authors deny that insects breathe, upon the ground that in their viscera there is no respiratory organ[188] to be found. 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 destitute¹ 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,[189] and this, notwithstanding the humming of bees, the chirping² of grasshoppers³, and the sounds emitted by numerous other insects which will be considered in their respective places. For my part, whenever I have considered the subject, I have ever felt persuaded that there is nothing impossible to Nature, nor do I see why creatures should be less able to live and yet not inhale⁴, than to respire without being possessed⁵ of viscera, a doctrine⁶ which I have already maintained, when speaking of the marine⁷ animals; and that, notwithstanding the density⁸ and the vast depth of the water which would appear to impede⁹ all breathing. But 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 respiration¹⁰, while, at the same time, they themselves are

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