58 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



long before one of them discovered the prize. Our 

 object, however, being- to prevent this individual from 

 informing the rest, we seized it, as we did several 

 others as they successively arrived ; but although we 

 were not aware of any ant-hill within a good many 

 yards of the spot, we speak within compass when 

 we say that we could have caught several hundreds 

 within an hour at the raisin, none of which could by 

 possibility have been informed by their companions, 

 whom we kept close prisoners. That they were led 

 to it by smell also appeared from those of the same 

 nest arriving usually by the same straight track. 

 We admit, indeed, that when we allowed the pri- 

 soners their liberty, a much greater number came to 

 the feast ; but that, as we imagine, was occasioned, 

 as in Franklin's experiment, not by mutual commu- 

 nication, but by the scent of the sugar left on their 

 path *. 



We do not see how our first experiment could be 

 explained otherwise ; and though some readers may 

 accuse us of refining too much on the second, it is 

 corroborated by many analogical facts. It is credibly 

 reported, for example, of the Negroes in the Antilles, 

 that they can follow their master as a dog does, by 

 smelling the track of his feet; — nay more, that they 

 can distinguish the track of a Frenchman from that 

 of a Negro f. Humboldt expressly states, that the 

 American Indians have distinct terms to express the 

 odour of a Negro, a European, and a native Ameri- 

 can!. Sir Keuelm Digby mentions a boy whose 

 smell was equally acute with that of the Antilles 

 Negroes; and a monk, who could distinguish ditfe- 

 rent persons in the dark by smell, began a treatise 

 on odours, but did not live to execute the task. The 



* J. R. 

 f Journ. des S^avans, pour 1667, p. 60. 

 .•j; Political Essay on New Spain, London, 1811. 



