The Capricorn 



Can it smell? Everything tells us no. 

 Scent is of assistance in the search for food. 

 But the Capricorn-grub need not go in quest 

 of eatables : it feeds on its home, it lives on 

 the wood that gives it shelter. Let us make 

 an attempt or two, however. I scoop in a 

 log of fresh cypress-wood a groove of the 

 same diameter as that of the natural galleries 

 and I place the worm inside it. Cypress- 

 wood is strongly-scented ; it possesses in a 

 high degree that resinous aroma which char- 

 acterizes most of the pine family. Well, 

 when laid in the odoriferous channel, the 

 larva goes to the end, as far as it can go, and 

 makes no further movement. Does not this 

 placid quiescence point to the absence of a 

 sense of smell? The resinous flavour, so 

 strange to the grub which has always lived 

 in oak, ought to vex it, to trouble it; and the 

 disagreeable impression ought to be revealed 

 by a certain commotion, by certain attempts 

 to get away. Well, nothing of the kind hap- 

 pens : once the larva has found the right po- 

 sition in the groove, it does not stir. I do 

 more : I set before it, at a very short distance, 

 in its normal canal, a piece of camphor. 

 Again, no effect. Camphor is followed by 

 naphthaline. Still nothing. After these 

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