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 antennz certain remark- 
able structures, which may very probably be auditory 
organs. 
These curious organs (Fig. 6) were first noticed, 
1 Central Africa, by Col. C. C. Long, p, 274, 
