68 FIKST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



brought within its range of wing; its flight is unhesitatingly directed 

 to it, and its precious burden of eggs, without a shadow of mistrust, is 

 at once committed to its leaves. !Such knowledge has never been at- 

 tained by our most distinguished botanists, and it is beyond the scope 

 of human intellect. We have called its displays instinct — a word 

 conveniently framed to cover manifestations in other classes of ani- 

 mated beings, which we are utterly unable to explain. As a partial 

 explanation of these wonders, it has been* suggested that to the insect 

 world may have been given senses differing in number and in kind 

 from those that we possess. But all the wonderful phenomena attend- 

 ant upon insect oviposition by selection, may readily be explained un- 

 der the supposition that it is guided and controlled by the sense of 

 smell. We know the value of this important sense to us, how greatly 

 it may minister to our pleasure and Avhat service it may render in 

 guarding us from deleterious exhalations and from improper food. 

 It is capable of cultivation to the extent of rendering us still greater 

 service. I have been told of a chemist in one of our colleges, who can 

 make quite a correct qualitative analysisof a patent nostrum, by apply- 

 ing it to his nostrils, and picking out one after another of the ingredients, 

 first naming those which are simply added as covers. It is related of a 

 blind person, that he acquired the faculty of recognizing his acquaint- 

 ances by the sense of smell. There are negroes in Africa who will fol- 

 low their masters by scent. A fish-dealer in Albany claims the ability of 

 naming each species of fish offered in the market, when presented 

 to him blindfolded, by the odor peculiar to each. The illustrations 

 given us of the acuteness of this sense in some of our domestic 

 animals, are so numerous as not to need citation. We will quote 

 a single instance of this almost miraculous acuteness, related upon 

 undoubted authority. ''A person, to make trial whether a young 

 blood-hound was well-trained, caused one of his servants to walk to a 

 town four miles distant, and then to a auirket-town three miles fur- 

 ther. The dog, without having seen the man he was to pursue, fol- 

 lowed him by the scent to the above-mentioned places, notwithstand- 

 ing the multitude of market-people that went along tiie same way and 

 of travelers that had occasion to cross it; and when the blood-hound 

 came to the chief market-town, he passed through the streets without 

 taking notice of any of the people there, and left not till he had gone 

 to the house where the man he sought rested himself, and found him 

 in an upper room, to the wonder of those that followed him." 



That insects are controlled in the discharge of their most important 

 functions by this same sense, may seem a bold supposition, in view of 

 the fact that, notwithstanding the laborious investigations in insect 



