226 EXPERIMENTS WITH SENSITIVE FLAME. 



we have no special organs of sense adapted to them. 

 There is, however, no reason in the nature of things 

 why this should be the case with other animals ; and 

 the problematical organs possessed by many of the 

 lower forms may have relation to sensations which we 

 do not perceive. If any apparatus could be devised 

 by which the number of vibrations produced by any 

 given cause could be lowered so as to be brought within 

 the range of our ears, it is probable that the result 

 would be most interesting. 



Moreover, there are not wanting observations which 

 certainly seem to indicate that ants possess some sense 

 of hearing. 



I am, for instance, indebted to Mr. Francis Galton 

 for the following quotation from Colonel Long's recent 

 work on Central Africa. 1 ' I observed,' he says, * the 

 manner of catching them ' (the ants, for food), ' as here 

 pictured ' (he gives a figure). ' Seated round an ant- 

 hole were two very pretty maidens, who with sticks 

 beat upon an inverted gourd, "bourmah," in cadenced 

 time to a not unmusical song, that seduced from its 

 hole the unwary ant, who, approaching the orifice, was 

 quickly seized.' (The species of ant is not mentioned.) 



Moreover, there are in the antennae certain remark- 

 able structures, which may very probably be auditory 

 organs. 



These curious organs (Fig. 6) were first noticed, 



1 Central Africa, by Ool. C. Long, p. 274. 



