252 SENSES OF INSECTS. 
precisely upon this question, and in general so extremely 
similar to what is here advanced, that I must copy it for 
your consideration. "Since there is nothing in the con- 
stitution of the atmosphere," says he, "to prevent vibra- 
tions much more frequent than any of which we are 
conscious, we may imagine that animals like the Grylli, 
whose powers appear to*commence nearly where ours 
terminate, may have the faculty of hearing still sharper 
sounds, which at present we do not know to exist; and 
that there may be other insects, hearing nothing in com- 
mon with us, but endued with a power of exciting, and 
a sense that perceives, vibrations indeed of the same na- 
ture as those which constitute our ordinary sounds, but 
so remote, that the animals who perceive them may be 
said to possess another sense, agreeing with our own solely 
in the medium by which it is excited, and possibly wholly 
unaffected by these slower vibrations of which we are 
sensible V That insects, however, hear nothing in com- 
mon with us, is contrary to fact ; at least with respect 
to numbers of them. They hear our sounds, and we 
theirs ; but their hearing or analogous sense is much 
nicer than ours, collecting the slightest vibratiuncle im- 
parted by other insects, &c. to the air. In inquiring 
how this is done, it may be asked — How know we that 
every joint of some antennae is not an acoustic organ, in 
a certain sense distinct from the rest? We see that the 
eyes of insects are usually compound, and consist of nu- 
merous distinct lenses; — why may not their external 
ears or their analogues be also multiplied, so as to 
a Philos. Trans. 1850. 314. 
