69 



ited by Col. Tannatt. The wood had grown for twenty- 

 five years in order to entirely cover the cone. 



Prof. E. S. Morse made .some additional remarks con- 

 cerning the Drosera. It may be put to sleep by applica- 

 tion of ether; paralyzed by pricking at a certain point; 

 and may even be given a fit of dyspepsia by giving it 

 certain kinds of food. Prof. Morse also described the 

 manner in which grasshoppers make their peculiar chirp- 

 ing noises, and the notes they utter. Sometimes we are 

 almost deafened by the noise they make. This is pro- 

 duced by rubbing the legs up and down against the wings. 

 The rasping vibratir;g surface makes the noise we hear. 

 It is so high in pitch no musician has yet recognized its 

 key. In fact some persons cannot hear it ; they are 

 sound-blind to sounds of so high a pitch. If a whistle 

 be sounded in presence of a large number of people at a 

 successively higher and higher pitch, there will be finally 

 some who cannot hear it, and as the pitch is raised higher 

 still a larger number of persons will cease to hear it. 

 The crickets rub the upper wings against the under. 

 They have a note for sunlight, and a different one for 

 cloudy weather. The males are in this case the singers. 

 The cicada sings by means of a tendon stretched across 

 a membrane which vibrates like a drimi when the tendon 

 is pulled or twitched rapidly. The vitality possessed by 

 some of these insects was dwelt upon. A young lady of 

 Salem, in making a preparation of a grasshopper, dis- 

 covered that after the head was removed, carrying wi];h it 

 all the interior portion of the body (disembowelling it in 

 fact, so that only the outer skin or shell with the wings 

 remained), certain nerve centres in the rings of the shell 

 upon being pricked caused the wings to llutter rapidly 

 for some time. 



