PEDIATRICS Vol. 64 No. 3 September 1979, pp. 300
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THOMAS PERCIVAL, MD WRITES TO HIS CHILDREN ABOUT CRUELTY TO INSECTS

T. E. C. Jr Md

Thomas Percival (1740-1804) is best known for his Medical Ethics (1794). The British and American medical professions have adopted much of "Percival" in their ethical codes.1

He was also the author of a delightful book of tales, fables, and reflections written for the instruction of his children.

This is how Percival taught his children about cruelty to insects.2

Mr. Melmoth, in one of his elegant letters, informs his friend, that the snails have had more than their share of his peaches and nectarines this season; but that he deems it a sort of cruelty to suffer them to be destroyed. It seems to be his opinion that it is no less inhuman to crush to death a harmless insect, whose only offence is that he eats the food which nature has provided for his sustenance, than it would be to kill a more bulky creature for the same reason. For the sensations of many insects are at least as exquisite as those of animals of more enlarged dimensions. The Millepedes rolls itself round upon the slightest touch; and the snail draws in her horns upon the least approach of the hand. Such instances of sensibility certainly confirm the observation of our inimitable Shakespeare, who teaches us that

—The poor beetle which we trated upon,

In corporal sufferance feels a pang as great

As when a giant dies.

But whilst we encourage these amiable feelings of the heart, we must not forget that humanity itself may be earned to an unreasonable, and even ridiculous extreme.