MODECCA MOLE. 



243 



animal is not described ; they inhabit the seas of hot 

 climates, and several fossil species are known. 



MODECCA (Jacquin). A curious genus belong- 

 ing to Passiflorece, discovered at Sierra Leone, and 

 also in India. In the stove it requires a soil com- 

 posed of loam and moor earth, and may be propagated 

 by cuttings placed in heat under a glass. 



MOLE (Tal/ja). A genus of mammalia belonging 

 to the order Carnassicr, and to the insectivorous divi- 

 sion of that order. The common English name mole 

 is derived from " mould," " mowle," or " moole," all 

 of which are varied pronunciations of the Anglo-Saxon 

 name for that portion of the surface substance of the 

 earth which consists in great part of decayed vegetable 

 matter, is more favourable for the roots of growing 

 vegetables than any other kind of earth, and which is 

 on this account more frequented by earth-worms and 

 ground larvae. In a state of nature the mole is the 

 regulator set over these ; and, as it has to perform 

 more severe labours in the procuring of its food than 

 any other known animal, it is both in instinct and in 

 structure better adapted for this purpose. Of all 

 animals the mole is the most ravenous and the most 

 impatient of hunger, so that a very brief suspension 

 of feeding works it into an absolute frenzy ; and if 

 two moles are shut up together, for even a very short 

 time, without anything to eat, they speedily engage 

 in desperate combat, and never desist until one is 

 vanquished, and then the conqueror instantly begins 

 to make a meal of the other. Among animals inha- 

 biting the surface of the ground in the ordinary way, 

 this would be reckoned a very cruel disposition ; but 

 when we consider the habits of the mole, and the 

 mode in which it must proceed in the finding of its 

 food, we must regard this extreme and ungovernable 

 appetite as the very perfection of its character. Other 

 animals have to pursue their food through the air or 

 the water ; and upon examining them it will be found 

 that their instinct for food is strong in proportion to 

 the degree of fatigue which they must undergo in the 

 procuring of it. The mole has to pursue its food 

 through the solid earth, and therefore the analogy 

 requires that its propensity for feeding should be 

 strengthened in proportion to the labour which it 

 must undergo. We shall afterwards have occasion 

 to notice more particularly the structure of their per- 

 manent covert-ways, or passages which the mole con- 

 structs for itself under the ground ; but we may in 

 the mean time mention, as illustrative of the general 

 fact of its adaptation to the place which it occupies 

 in nature, that the mole finds no part of its food in 

 those permanent covert-ways or galleries, but that 

 every time it eats below the surface (and it does this 

 for the greater part of its active life) it must bore 

 through fresh earth, and thus, for a small portion of 

 its meal, it must undergo more fatigue than most 

 surface animals require to undergo in the course of 

 an entire day. 



In nature we find that the resource of every crea- 

 '.ure is in very exact proportion to the necessities of 

 -hat creature ; and this law is as perfect in the mole, 

 obscurely labouring under ground, as it is in those 

 ray children of the sun which wanton in the brightness 

 if the tropical day. The adaptation requires two 

 mrts : there must be organs fitted for the work which 

 * to be performed, and there must be the requisite 

 mpulse to use those organs. In both these respects 

 'he mole is a perfect model of nature's workmanship. 

 'ts organisation is more complete in what may be 



called dead strength than the organisation of any 

 other animal with which we are acquainted ; and the 

 appetites which impel it to labour, and the senses 

 which direct it in its labours, are of a very high order. 

 We have already said that the cravings of hunger in 

 the mole are frequent and violent, beyond all example 

 in animated nature ; and it will immediately be seen 

 that, in an animal which has to bore for perhaps 

 several yards through the solid earth in order to pro- 

 cure a single worm, this very strong impulse is neces- 

 sary for putting it into motion. But the impulse is 

 only as it were the mere beginning the stimulating 

 cause of the mole's operations. It is essential, and 

 without it the guides and the organs of working would 

 be vain and useless, but so would it be an idle torment 

 to the animal without them. In considering only its 

 underground operations, sight would be of little use to 

 the mole, though, as we shall afterwards have occasion 

 more particularly to remark, there are seasons and situ- 

 ations where the use of this sense becomes necessary 

 to the common mole. Smelling and hearing are the 

 two senses which are most essential to an animal living 

 under ground, and digging along the solid earth for 

 its food : and it is perhaps no exaggeration to say 

 that in both of these senses the mole is more highly 

 endowed than any other animal with which we are 

 acquainted. It is probable, indeed, that there is in 

 this animal a more general sense than either of these 

 two, and one which, as it has not "a local habitation" 

 in any specific part of the animal, has not " a name" 

 in the vocabularies of describers. But, notwithstand- 

 ing this, the existence of the sense is not in the least 

 doubtful. The fur of the mole is the most delicate, 

 and the most abundant, surface for surface, which is 

 found on any animal. Fur of every kind may be 

 regarded as a species of organ of what is called touch, 

 not in the mere pile of the fur certainly, but in the 

 sensation which is instantly communicated to the 

 root of the fur, as we find in many animals, and espe- 

 cially in those whiskers of nocturnal animals which 

 guide them in their rambles. Upon the same prin- 

 ciple there is no question that the exquisitely delicate 

 fur of the mole, which yields to a touch quite imper- 

 ceptible by us, is one of the finest organs of feeling 

 in the whole animal kingdom. Nor is there any 

 doubt that this fur communicates to the owner the 

 slightest concussion of the earth over its nest or its 

 gallery, without any assistance from the allocated 

 senses of hearing and smelling, how acute soever they 

 may be for their particular purposes. The produced 

 nose of the mole, and the large development of the 

 olfactory nerves, are proofs that its sense of smelling is 

 exceedingly keen ; and, though an external concha 

 or shell to the ear would be an incumbrance to it in 

 its operations, there is no doubt that its hearing is 

 very acute, for its internal ear is remarkably well 

 formed. This, however, is a portion of the physiology 

 of animals upon which we require to exercise no 

 ordinary degree of caution. In all cases we are apt 

 to take ourselves as models ; and, as we are adapted 

 only for the exercise of our senses in the free air, we 

 are very apt to judge in our manner of those animals 

 which dwell in the waters or in the earth, and as such 

 have very different media through which impressions 

 are communicated to them. In consequence of this 

 we are very apt to impute to some single sense having 

 specific organs and a local situation, that impression 

 which is in reality conveyed to the whole body of an 

 animal by the element in which that animal resides. 

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