184 PHYSIOLOGY OF INSECTS. 



stinct. Love is that sense which ensures obedience to the 

 greaC command, " Increase and multiply :" its gratification 

 seems the main object of an insect's life, after having ar- 

 rived at maturity : its seat is in the organs of generation. 

 Touch is a most invaluable sense to insects ; they have 

 two antennae and four feelers attached to the mouth, which 

 appear provided purposely for the exercise of this sense : 

 the tarsi are also employed to ascertain qualities by touch ; 

 but the other parts of the body appear insensible to feel- 

 ing, either as regards the ascertaining of qualities or the 

 sensation of pain. Taste is undoubtedly possessed by in- 

 sects in an eminent degree ; and they seem to have the 

 same preferences for animal or vegetable food which are 

 evinced by vertebrated animals. Smell appears to be the 

 sense by which insects are led to discover strongly- scented 

 substances at a great distance, where it is quite impossible 

 that sight should aid them; its seat, however, is wholly 

 unknown. Hearing seems also to be possessed by insects, 

 or to what purpose would the merry cricket sing his evening 

 song, if there were none of his kind to listen to and admire 

 it ? The seat of this sense is also wholly unknown. Sight 

 is a sense of which we have abundant evidence ; it is seated 

 in two large compound eyes, often occupying nearly the 

 whole head, and also occasionally in three minute simple 

 eyes, situated in a triangle on the crown of the head. 



The mind of insects is more wonderful than our own : 

 it has neither speculation, retention, judgment, nor power ; 

 it is, in fact, an existence which comes perfect from the 

 Creator : the new-bom bee is perfectly mistress of archi- 

 tecture ; she is heaven-instructed : the mind is not only 

 the ruling sense, but is a distinct immaterial element. 



The Alimentary Canal. — The alimentary canal in in- 

 sects, as in higher animals, consists of three principal parts, 

 the gullet, the stomach, and the intestines. The gullet or 



