It cannot fail to be noticed, that in this description of the insect's mouth no mention has been made of its organs of _taste_. Its eye, and probably ears, and means of touch, have all come before us; but where, it will be asked, is its tongue? The little organ mentioned as a part of the insect's lower lip, although strikingly resembling a tongue in some instances, is in others very different from it, and appears in such cases to be quite unfitted to act as the organ of taste. We must, therefore, suppose, that other parts of the lower lip or mouth have the same faculty in addition to the so-called tongue. It is very certain that insects have the faculty of tasting, and also of discriminating between their food; as few will be disposed to question, who will place a plate of salt, and a plate filled with moist sugar, in a sunny window on a fine day; it will soon become evident which will be favoured with the attention of the flies. Neither has any mention been made of a _nose_.[W] A common flesh-fly, however, will soon satisfy us, that it is not devoid of some organ or other which answers this purpose. If we cover a piece of meat under a cloth, or put it into a wire safe where it is certain that the fly cannot see it, it will scent it out as readily, or even more so, than a cat or a dog would. Sometimes this insect's nose proves a treacherous guide, for a plant has been described, called the _carrion-flower_, which diffuses an odour like that of putrid meat, which attracts the fly, and induces it to deposit its eggs thereon, under the idea that its future young will thus be hatched upon a certain source of food; but in vain, for they perish almost as soon as born, finding nothing in the plant whereon to exist.[X] But as to the precise seat of the organ of this sense, opinions are greatly at variance. Some believe it to exist in the _spiracles_, some in the mouth, and some in a special organ which they call the nose, but which does not seem in reality to fulfil that office, at any rate, in the generality of cases. M. Huber showed the existence of this faculty to lie somewhere about the mouth, by some interesting experiments upon bees. He presented successively to all parts of a bee's body a camel-hair pencil dipped in oil of turpentine, to which most insects are extremely averse, but the bee took no notice of it. He then took a very fine hair pencil, while the bee had extended its proboscis, and presented it to its eyes and antennæ without effect; but when he pointed it near the cavity of the mouth, above the insertion of the proboscis, the creature started back in an instant, quitted its food, clapped its wings, and walked about in great agitation, and would have taken flight if the pencil had not been removed. On this it began to eat again; but on the experiment being repeated, it showed signs of similar discomposure; oil of marjoram produced the same effect, and more promptly and entirely. He