A Sixth Sense 



Let us see now what takes place, and what it is that 

 enables the bat to fly about through all manner of obstruc- 

 tions without touching anything, after the manner of a swallow. 

 What enables it to pursue a fly or a beetle in a degree of 

 darkness which renders eyes useless ? 



In the bats that feed on swiftly flying insects, we find 

 that this small organ is about the shape and size of the wing 

 of the insect on which it feeds. The beat of the insect's 

 wings is communicated to this organ and enables the bat to 

 follow the insect and seize it without seeing it. This is very 

 simple and easily understood, because the insect itself produces 

 certain atmospheric vibrations to which the little leaves in 

 front of the bat's ear respond, but, when we come to in- 

 animate things that give off no vibrations of themselves, how 

 does the bat know of their presence ? How is it able to 

 judge of their character ? 



It has already been shown that the wings of the bat are 

 extremely sensitive and very well provided with nerves, and 

 the same is true of the various, organs on the face; of course, 

 all of these are intimately connected with each other, and 

 .ilso with the brain of the bat. '(When a bat flies about in 

 total darkness, the beat of its wings sends out a series of pul- 

 -sations or waves after the manner of sound waves, but of 

 too low a frequency to be considered as sound. These waves 

 strike against all surrounding objects, and, like sound or light, 

 are reflected back to their source of origin] The wings send 

 out ,.uns or impulses and they are reflected back 



and i^~ivcd by the sensitive organs which form a part of 

 the face of the bat. lThe extremely delicate nature of the 

 bat's wings, together with the sensitiveness of its organ of the 



c 17 



