( 493 
1879J 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE SENSES. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Journal of Science . 
Sir, — Iu an article which you inserted not very long ago the 
possible existence of other senses than the five with which we 
are personally familiar was suggested. You will perhaps there- 
fore permit me to call your attention to a lecture by Professor 
Pierce, of Cambridge (U.S.). He points out that auditory 
vibrations are not more than twenty thousand per second, whilst 
the slowest visual vibrations are four hundred millions of mil- 
lions. Between these two limits, therefore, there is a range 
sufficient for more than forty additional senses, “ each of which 
might have its own peculiar effect upon the nerves of the 
observer, and give a corresponding variety of information.” 
Surely this consideration alone ought to convince us of the vast 
extent of our own ignorance and of the folly of pronouncing on 
the non-existence of whatever escapes our scanty means of 
research. — I am, &c., 
Caution. 
HEREDITY. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Journal of Science. 
Sir, — A recent writer explains the heredity of talents, character, 
and instincts by the hypothesis that the young animal is a con- 
tinuation of its parents, and enters upon life with a remembrance 
of their adtions, which, though latent, is roused into adtivity by 
the force of circumstances. Hence the young bird, when the 
breeding-season comes on, builds a nest on the pattern followed 
by its ancestors. This assumption offers an excellent explana- 
tion of the peculiar type of nest adhered to by each species, and 
even of the architectural peculiarities of the solitary wasps, bees, 
&c., who have never even seen their parents. But I find a diffi- 
culty as regards the song of birds. Experience shows that a 
young bird brought up without the society of its own species 
will never adopt their characteristic note, any more than a child 
reared among wild beasts — of which there have been cases — will 
