266 
Sense of Smell in Insects. [May, 
and pledged to adopt all conceivable agencies for the defeat 
of the Anti-Vivisedtionist Agitation, and ultimately for the 
total and unconditional repeal of the obnoxious law ! 
(Gentlemen favourable to the establishment of such a 
League are invited to communicate with the Editor of this 
Journal.) 
III. ON THE SENSE OF SMELL IN INSECTS. 
By J- W. Slater. 
t T is generally admitted that in insedts the sense of smell 
reaches a power and a delicacy to which we find no 
comparison in other departments of the animal king- 
dom. Not only our unaided senses, but our scientific 
methods of research, are in comparison gross and ineffective. 
Our most skilful chemists tell us, for instance, that saccha- 
rose when duly refined is one and the same whether it be 
obtained from the sugar-cane or from the beet-root. But if 
we place the two side by side near a bee-hive, these little 
creatures soon show their perception of a difference by 
settling upon the cane-sugar, and leaving its northern 
bounty-defended rival untouched. Whilst, however, we so 
unanimously recognise the consummate olfadfory power of 
inserts, there has been a great lack of accord as to its seat. 
The antennse, the palpi, the orifices of the tracheae or respira- 
tory apparatus, have all been declared to be the representative 
of the nose in Mammalia. Recently another view has been 
most ably advocated by Dr. Wolff, on the faith of certain 
delicate anatomical researches. This investigator has dis- 
covered a peculiarly differentiated tradl in the soft membrane 
extending from the palate to the labrum, richly supplied with 
nerves, provided with certain parts which he regards as 
olfadtory rods, and with a flask-shaped gland which appears 
to secrete a kind of mucus, serving to keep the above-men- 
tioned membrane moist. 
Whilst, however, there can be little doubt that the mem- 
brane in question subserves some especial function, and is 
probably an organ of sensation, there is, as it appears to me, 
no serious evidence derived from observation or experiment 
