188 Scientific Intelligence. — Physiology. 
the mustaches of several mammifera, such as the seal and cats, 
are peculiar organs of touch, I made choice of the rabbit for 
trying some experiments upon the subject. This animal pass- 
ing the greater part of its life in warrens, where the light can- 
not penetrate, this circumstance seemed to me to render it bet- 
ter adapted for the object of the inquiries which I had pro- 
posed to myself, its mustaches being also long and pretty nu- 
merous. I found in this animal the same division and distribu- 
tion of the nervous filaments in the bulbs of the mustaches as 
in seals and cats in general, a circumstance which removed 
all my doubts with regard to the use of these parts. However, 
not contented with this proof, derived from analogy of struc- 
ture, I wished to make some direct experiments, of which the 
following are the results. I arranged upon the floor of a 
large room a quantity of books, in such a manner as to form a 
sort of labyrinth, through which an animal of moderate size 
could with difficulty find a passage. I placed a rabbit in the 
middle of this labyrinth, having previously taken care to pro- 
duce such a degree of darkness, as to render it impossible to 
distinguish any object whatever. On admitting the light a few 
moments after, I found the animal escaped from its prison, af- 
ter finding a passage through the whole of these books, without 
having overturned or displaced one of them, although they were 
placed so near to one another that the smallest shock would 
have been sufficient to make them fall. In order to determine 
whether its sight had enabled the animal to escape from its pri- 
son, I tied up its eyes first with a piece of linen, which I tight- 
ened well, and made several folds of, and afterwards with a 
piece of crape folded double, and bound down, to prevent all 
mistakes, by means of a crucial bandage. In both cases the 
animal walked with great ease among the books, without knock- 
ing against any thing, even when forced to accelerate its pro- 
gress. I was very curious to observe, during this experiment, 
the motion of the head by which the animal seemed to have in 
view to measure the distance of objects ; when it approached 
them, it touched them with the extremity of its mustaches. In 
order to remove all doubt from my mind, I cut the mustaches 
situated at the side of the head, and those placed around the 
eyes. The animal was bound up again as it had been before, 
