1878.] The Senses of the Lower Animals , 313 
recognise sounds, the evidence may be considered as 
complete. 
Concerning taste in the Invertebrates we know very little 
beyond the bare faCt that many of them are extremely 
scrupulous in the selection of their food, and will in many 
instances accept death by hunger as a preferable alternative 
to a change of diet. Here, however, the functions of smell 
and of taste are so interwoven that we are not yet compe- 
tent to draw the boundary line. What are the organs of 
taste in inserts is still a matter of doubt ; the palpi, the so- 
called tongue, and the inner surface of the alimentary 
aperture have all been suggested. 
Touch plays a very important part in the economy of the 
Articulates, and attains in some of them a delicacy at least 
as great as in man. Pope’s assertion that the spider’s touch 
“ lives along the line ” is the expression of a literal truth. 
If an Epeira is sitting in the centre of her geometrical web, 
and a gnat becomes entangled towards the circumference, 
she may be seen applying her feet in succession to the 
different radii, and then bounding off in the right direction. 
That she is guided by touch rather than by sight appears 
from the circumstance that she may be induced to rush out 
in the same manner if the web is gently tickled with a 
straw, or if a fine jet of water is cautiously directed against 
it from a syringe or washing-bottle. We once saw a Harry 
Long-legs— as they are familiarly called — fall into a web, 
but manage to escape, leaving one of his ungainly limbs 
behind him. The spider, hurrying up and finding the foot, 
ran along, naturally expecting, doubtless, to find a body at 
the other end. Being disappointed she returned to the foot, 
and, when finally convinced that she had merely a trunkless 
leg to deal with, she fled with precipitation, as if utterly 
staggered at such a violation of the fitness of things. 
The antennal language of ants — if it does not, according 
to Mr. Belt’s interesting conjecture, turn upon the emission 
and recognition of odours — must depend upon touch. But 
if we look through the whole extent of what has been called 
“ insedt architecture ” we meet with one unbroken series of 
instances, proving the utmost delicacy of touch in articulate 
animals. 
If we try to discover the seat of the sense of touch in 
inseCts, we find several organs to which it has been assigned 
— the antennae, the palpi, the paraglossae, and even the feet 
may take a share in the process. It is, of course, probable 
that where so many organs exist there must be some variety 
in the nature of their functions. We may here be on the 
