296 The Natural History of Selborne 



This wild and fanciful assertion will hardly be admitted by the 

 philosophers of these days, especially as they all now seem agreed 

 that insects are not furnished with any organs of hearing at all. 1 

 But if it should be urged, that though they cannot hear yet perhaps 

 they may feel the repercussions of sounds, I grant it is possible they 

 may. Yet that these impressions are distasteful or hurtful, I deny, 

 because bees, in good summers, thrive well in my outlet, where the 

 echoes are very strong ; for this village is another Anathoth, a place 

 of responses and echoes. Besides, it does not appear from experi- 

 ment that bees are in any way capable of being affected by sounds ; 

 for I have often tried my own with a large speaking-trumpet held 

 close to their hives, and with such an exertion of voice as would have 

 hailed a ship at the distance of a mile, and still these insects pursued 

 their various employments undisturbed, and without showing the least 

 sensibility or resentment. 



Some time since its discovery this echo is become totally silent, 

 though the object, or hop-kiln, remains ; nor is there any mystery 

 in this defect ; for the field between is planted as an hop-garden, 

 and the voice of the speaker is totally absorbed and lost among the 

 poles and entangled foliage of the hops. And when the poles are 

 removed in autumn the disappointment is the same ; because a tall, 

 quick-set hedge, nurtured up for the purpose of shelter to the hop 

 ground, entirely interrupts the impulse and repercussion of the 

 voice ; so that till these obstructions are removed no more of its 

 garrulity can be expected. 



Should any gentleman of fortune think an echo in his park or 

 outlet a pleasing incident, he might build one at little or no expense. 

 For whenever he had occasion for a new barn, stable, dog-kennel, 

 or the like structure, it would be only needful to erect this building 

 on the gentle declivity of an hill, with a like rising opposite to it, 

 at a few hundred yards distance ; and perhaps success might be 

 the easier insured could some canal, lake, or stream intervene. 

 From a seat at the centrum -phonicum he and his friends might 

 amuse themselves sometimes of an evening with the prattle of this 



Insects have since been proved to be sensible to sound. Many insects emit 

 musical notes as calls or cries to attract their mates. ED. 



