ON THE SENSES OF INSECTS. 
615 
In comparing this table with practice at 
the higher velocities, it is reckoned necessa- 
to add ^ more than the useful effect, for the 
total mass moved. Now, the actual rate at 
which some of the rapid coaches travel is 
10 miles an hour ; the stages average about 
9 miles ; and a coach with its load of lug- 
gage and passengers amounts to about 3 
tons; therefore the average day’s work of 
4 coach horses is 27 tons, drawn 1 mile, or 
6| tons drawn 1 mile, by 1 horse. At the 
rate of 10 miles an hour, the table gives 3*6 
tons, which increased by ^ makes 4*8 tons 
drawn 1 mile, for the extreme quantity of 
labour of a horse at this rate, upon a good 
level road. To this result should be added 
the loss of effect in ascending hills, passing 
heavy roads, &c., which will make the ac- 
tual labour performed by a coach horse 
about double the maximum given in the 
table. The injurious consequences are well 
known. (To be continued.) 
SENSES OF INSECTS. 
It was well said by the distinguished Da- 
nish naturalist, Fabricius, that “ nothing in 
natural history is more abstruse and difficult 
than an accurate description of the senses of 
animals.*” This inherent complexity of the 
subject appears to have induced Lehmann to 
undertake the investigation of the senses of 
insects t- He collected into a focus all that 
was known previous to his time, though he 
has added very little from his own observation ; 
but sincej:hat period much has been done 
by Marcel de Serres, Wollaston, xMuller, and 
others. 
The chief difficulty of the subject arises from 
the great physical differences which exist be- 
tween animals furnishedwith bones and warm 
blood, and insects that have neither, rendering 
all inference from analogy much less to be 
depended on, than if the physical structure of 
each were similar. When we see an elephant, 
for example, use his trunk to lift a small 
piece of money from the ground, we cannot 
doubt but that he feels the coin as plainly as 
we should do in lifting it with the hand, and 
hence the inference that the trunk of the ele- 
phant is an organ of touch follows of course. 
But when we see an ichneumon 6y vibrating 
its long antennae before the entrance of a bee’s 
nest, and sometimes even inserting one or both 
of them into the hole as if to explore its con- 
insects alluded to may be warnec of the ap- 
tents, we are not thence entitled to conclude 
that the antennae are organs of touch, for they 
may, with as much probability, be inferred to 
be organs of hearing employed to listen to 
sounds produced by the inhabitant of the nest. 
It would also be too hasty, as it appears to us, 
to infer that flies, gnats, and moths, are en- 
dowed with eyes of very quick sight, because 
we find it difficult to approach them without 
* Nye Samlingas det Daiiske, &c. ii. 375. 
+ De Sensibus Externis Insectorum, p. 1, 
4to., Gottiugae, 1798. 
putting them to flight; for the earth-woim 
(Lumbricus terrestris, Linn.) will retreat 
with similar rapidity into its hole when the 
light of a candle is thrown upon it at night,* 
though no anatomist has ever discovered its eyes 
nor believes that it has any ; and the insects 
alluded to may be warned of the approach of 
danger by smell, by hearing, or by touch, from 
slight changes in the currents of air, as pro- 
bably as by sight. Analogy, it would thence 
appear, is very apt to mislead ; and as we have 
little else to go upon in the subject of the sen- 
ses in insects, we can seldom ascertain the 
tacts with minute accuracy, and must rest 
contented with probabilities and approxima- 
tions to the truth. 
Respecting one point there can be no 
doubt,— namely, that an object must always 
be present in order to pioduce a sensation or 
feeling ; light and colours being in this man- 
ner the objects of the sen.se of seeing, and sound 
of the sense of hearing. In man the impression 
made by light upon the eye or by sound upon 
the ear passes along peculiar nerves to the 
brain, as the signal from a distant telegraph is 
communicated to a metropolis. In insects we 
may suppose that such impressions upon the 
eye or the ear are only conveyed to the next 
nervous centre (ganglion ), since they possess 
no general brain similar to ours, but a number 
of central points in different paits of the body 
where the adjacent nerves unitef. Whether, 
also, insects possess one set of nerves for feel- 
ing and another set for motion, as Mr. Charles 
Bell has recently discovered to be the case 
arriong larger animals, remains to be ascer- 
tained, though analogy would lead us to con- 
clude that they must have something at least 
similar. Be this as it may, the most obvious 
mode in which we can discuss the subject be- 
fore us, is to examine the structure of the 
organs, and the probable action of objects 
U|:)on these. It appears to be the most con- 
venient order to begin with the Sense of 
Touch, and then to take up Taste, Smell, 
Hearing, and Vision, in succession. 
( To be continued.) 
THE TAXIDERMIST. 
{Continued from page 410 .) 
OF STUFFING QUADRUPEDS, &C. 
Let US suppose the animal which we in- 
tend to stuff to be a Cat. Wire of such a 
thickness is chosen as will support the ani- 
mal by being introduced under the soles of 
the feet, and running it thi'ough each of the 
four legs. A piece of smaller dimensions is 
then taken, measuring about two feet, for 
the purpose of forming, what is termed by 
staffers, a tail -bearer. This piece of wire is 
bent at nearly a third of its length, into an 
oval of about six inches in length ; the two 
ends are twisted together, so as to leave one 
of them somewhat longer than the other ; 
the tail is then correctly measured, and the 
♦ J. R. 
t See Insect Transformations, pp. 400 and ISO, 
