THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
SHE LEADS IN BEAUTYAND INTEREST g 
jL FRO« 
I; HOMES TO NATURE'S REALMS. ^ 
EDWARD F. BIGELOW, MANAGING EDIT0R*“1 
Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut. 
Subscription, $1.50 a year Single copy, 15 cents 
Entered as Second Class Matter June 12, 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, 
authorized on June 27, 1918. 
Volume XIV 
APRIL, 1922 
Number n 
“EDUCATED FLEAS” OF FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
By Dr. W. H. Dali, Honorary Curator of the Division of Mollusks at the 
United States Museum. 
This article was published by Dr. Dali in the “American Naturalist” for 1877. His 
address is Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
“Educated Fleas” describes a remarkable form of entertainment in vogue some half 
century ago. There was apparently considerable genuineness in the exhibition. How 
this was accomplished Dr. Dali has endeavored to tell us. 
I N old-fashioned “annuals” and espe- 
cially in obsolete works on instinct 
and intelligence among the lower 
animals, accounts of the so-called 
“Educated Fleas” will doubtless be re- 
membered by my adult readers. The 
story of their marvelous performances 
had for my boyhood a peculiar interest 
not unmixed with incredulity. In later 
years I had begun half-unconsciously 
to class them with the spurious marvels 
of the “automatic chess player” and the 
generation of Acari by the action of 
electricity on chemicals. So far as my 
mind was occupied with the subject at 
all, it had concluded on general prin- 
ciples that intelligent action, of the 
kind described in the old works referred 
to, could he attributed to fleas with 
very little probability ; and that, what- 
ever the innate mental ability possessed 
by them, it was in the highest degree 
unlikely that it was susceptible of 
training. 
Some weeks ago, when passing 
through Broadway, New York, not far 
from Union Square, an accidental 
glance caught the sign over a doorway, 
“Exhibition of Educated Fleas.” Past 
memories and present curiosity deter- 
mined me to make an inspection at 
once. Half an hour later I had seen 
all there was to see, purchased a lively 
little pamphlet by — shall I say the 
inventor of the educated fleas? and de- 
cided that the small fee exacted was 
well expended. As it does not appear 
that the modus operand i of this exhibi- 
tion has ever been explained, an at- 
tempt in that direction may not be un- 
interesting to the readers of the Nat- 
uralist. 
To make the explanation intelligible 
it will be necessary to begin with the 
conclusion, or in other words to first 
state the essential part of the explana- 
tion. 
First, the fleas are not educated. 
Copyright 1922 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 
