244 



MOLE. 



It is not easy to form a correct estimate of the 

 senses of the mole by any analogy drawn from ani- 

 mals which inhabit the free air and enjoy the light ; 

 and as we are apt, in all our judgments of animals, to 

 carry this analogy along with us as the standard of 

 our judgment, we are apt to err in the case of so very 

 singular an animal as the mole, unless we use the 

 greatest caution, and throw the case upon its own 

 individual facts a mode of proceeding which is most 

 essential to the naturalist in evidence. 



That the mole possesses senses different from 

 those of animals which live above ground and enjoy 

 the light, is undoubted ; but what those senses are, it 

 is impossible for us to determine to a minute shade. 

 We call them hearing and smelling, and there is no 

 question that both of these senses are very acute in 

 the mole. It really seems, however, that naturalists, 

 even those of most commendable zeal and ability, are 

 apt to lay too much stress upon those localised senses, 

 and to neglect, or leave out of their estimate, that 

 more general, and, as one would say, more primary 

 sense, which belongs to the whole frame of the ani- 

 mal, and not to any particular organ. This is the 

 " muscular feeling," of which some account will be 

 found in the article MAMMALIA ; and as it is the real 

 foundation of every species of animal feeling and 

 perception, whatever may be its immediate organ, we 

 ought to make it the very foundation of all our spe- 

 culations and judgments with regard to the senses of 

 animals, whatever may be the form and development 

 of the organs of those senses. We have already re- 

 marked, that the fur of the mole is well adapted for 

 communicating every species of impression to the 

 system of the animal ; and we may now add, that the 

 naked parts of .it appear to be fitted for the same 

 purpose. It is true, that the snout of the mole is 

 cartilaginous, and that the under sides of the paws 

 are covered with callous rather than a delicate and 

 flexible skin. But these are matters of minor import- 

 ance, because the fact of feeling depends not upon 

 the mere external part so much as on the internal 

 one with which that is connected. We have a strik- 

 ing example of this in the ox. A blow on the horn 

 of that animal, though it does not of course inflict 

 any pain, and not in the case of a mere blow any in- 

 jury upon the horn, is yet more severely felt, and 

 causes more acute anguish to the animal, than a blow 

 with the same instrument, and struck with the same 

 force, upon the muscular parts. It is indeed a re- 

 markable fact that the muscles of animals, which are 

 pre-eminently their working structures, are really the 

 parts which suffer the least from blows and bruises, 

 and that tendon, and especially the periosteum of 

 bone, are vastly more sensitive than flesh. Knowing 

 these facts, and it is necessary that every student of 

 nature should know them, we must be cautious before 

 we come to any positive or general decision as to what 

 part of an animal can, and what cannot, feel acutely. 

 Upon this principle it is highly probable that the 

 callous skin of the mole, and even the roots of its 

 paws, large and hard as those organs are, conspire 

 with the fur, and the organs of hearing and smelling, 

 in helping the animal to delve its subterraneous way 

 after its food. Still there is something very curious 

 in the matter. The larvce of the ground insects, that 

 is, those of the cockchaffer and others, which are so 

 exceedingly destructive to vegetation in fields and 

 meadows, do not appear to be possessed of much sen- 

 sibility, and therefore it is natural to suppose that the 



mole should be able to come upon them unawares. 

 The earth-worm is, however, an exceedingly sentient 

 creature, both as respects changes of the atmosphere 

 and concussions of the earth. Heat and cold, drought 

 and moisture, the beating of the earth, the tread of a 

 heavy animal, and almost anything which produces a 

 change or a disturbance, puts the earth-worms in 

 motion. It is therefore not a little singular that 

 these very earth-worms should form the principal 

 food of the mole, and that it should obtain a sufficient 

 number of them to repay the labour of its digging a 

 mine after them in the earth. To this mine we shall 

 afterwards have occasion to revert, and we shall then 

 remark on the curious similarity which there is be- 

 tween the mining of moles and the mining of colliers ; 

 but we are in the mean time speaking of the general 

 habits of the animal, and its general adaptation to 

 that singular place which is assigned it in nature. 



From the time of Aristotle downward there have 

 been mistakes respecting the sense of sight in the 

 mole. There is no question of the accuracy of all 

 that is stated by Aristotle respecting every animal 

 which came under his observation, and perhaps he is 

 more to be relied upon than any naturalist of the 

 long period which intervened between him and our 

 illustrious countryman, Ray. There is, however, one 

 caution to which we must carefully attend if we 

 would avail ourselves of the accuracy of the great 

 Grecian naturalist , and this caution is especially 

 necessary in the case of the mole. In Italy, in Greece, 

 and in other parts of the south of Europe, there is a 

 mole resembling the common mole in form and man- 

 ners, but which is to all appearance blind. It has eyes, 

 indeed, but they are the most rudimental eyes with 

 which we are acquainted, being not larger than grains 

 of mustard-seed, and having the skin over them with- 

 out the slightest separation or opening of eyelids. It 

 is true that we are not warranted in predicating abso- 

 lute blindness of the animal, even in this case ; be- 

 cause it is impossible for us to state precisely the 

 degree of development which is necessary before an 

 eye can see. We know that if a well-developed eye 

 which is habitually used in daylight were to be re- 

 duced to the state of the eyes of this southern mole, 

 it could not by possibility see ; but still this gives us 

 no positive criterion as to the quantity of develop- 

 ment in an eye which is absolutely necessary for the 

 function of vision. Thus we are thrown upon the 

 facts of the particular case ; and experiment has 

 clearly decided that the common mole not only sees, 

 but sees well, though in the case of the mole of the 

 south of Europe, which has no external opening to 

 the eyes, the fact has not been decided. 



There is a passage in Shakspeare's Romeo and 

 Juliet, which has been quoted by almost every de- 

 scriber of the mole since the time which Shakspeare 

 wrote. But, notwithstanding the number of times 

 that tkis short passage has been quoted, we shall 

 quote it again for the purpose of doing justice both 

 to the mole and to Shakspeare. How he came by 

 it is not for us to say ; but it is certain that Shak- 

 speare was acquainted with a fact in natural 

 history of which professed naturalists were ignorant 

 for a long time after his death. The passage to which 

 we allude is as follows : 



" Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not 

 Hear a foot fall!" 



The scene of this passage is laid in the neighbour- 



