LETTER XLV. 



SENSES OF INSECTS. 



AT first one would think that the senses of insects 

 might be described in very few words, and scarcely af- 

 ford matter for a separate letter; but when we find that 

 physiologists are scarcely yet agreed upon this subject, 

 and that the use of some of their organs, which appear 

 to be organs of sensation, has not yet been satisfactorily 

 ascertained we shall not wonder that it requires more 

 discussion than at the first blush we were aware of. In 

 treating on this head I shall first say something on the 

 senses in general, and then confine myself to those of 

 insects. 



Touch, taste, smell, hearing, and sight, I need not tell 

 you, is the usual enumeration of the senses : but as the 

 term includes every means of communication with the 

 external world, the list perhaps might be increased; and 

 there is ground for thinking that the number seven, so 

 signalized as a sacred number a , may also here have 

 place. Dr. Virey, an eminent physiologist, whose sen- 

 timents on various subjects I have before noticed with 

 approbation 5 , appears to be of opinion that there are 



a VOL. III. p. 15. note a . b Ibid. 58-. See above, p. 26. 



VOL. IV. R 



