New-York tribune., 1908-06-20


which are difficult Of access. Eighty authors
including soldiers and monkish chroniclers. as
well as travellers and geographers. have been
made contributors to the collection by the trans
lator.
The first of the promised eight volumes OF
Murats correspondence has Just appeared In
Paris. It is calculated to give the reader
much higher idea of the brilliant cavalry leader
than has been held heretofore. These letters
we are told show us man who Is not only
dashing soldier of the romantic type. but
sound, straightforward business man. d1plo-
matist of more than usual ability. There are
more than six hundred letters in this opening
volume about half Of them being from Murats
own hand.
Another new book which takes us back to the
Nanoleonc period is the first translation from
the original into English Of Thibaudeaus Me
moires sur le Consulat." Thibaudeau's book is
difficult to procure even in French. and well
come therefore is this excellent translation OF
the historians memorable conversations with
the First Consul. 1t was in one of these talks
by the way. that Bonaparte pronounced Shake
speare's plays "pitiable stuff" In others we get
the great captains views on marriage, divorce
punishment crime, religion, education, the char
acter of the French people, the essentials OF mill
tary training the folly of giving freedom TO
negroes or women and the necessity OF con-
slant wars and victories for the consolidation
of his government.
A translation of DR.. Auguste Ferers book on
1.-The Senses of Insects" comes to interest those
who are ready to admit that there is psychol-
ogy Of insects. The authors experiments on
vision lead him to these conclusions:
Insects guide themselves in flight almost entirely,
and on the ground partly. by of their facet
ted eyes. The antenna and the buccal sensory or
Insects perceive the motion of objects particular
y well. g.. the dsplacements of visual images ages
see better when the wing than at rest for dHr r
p1scfd 11s shs nsaSelT fs i~7se to the e1e
Insects only distinguish the contours and forms
Insects appreciate the direction and distance of
objects very clearly during flight by the ald OF
even when at rest the distance of immobile OBJ
Certain insects (bees, humble:bees) distinguish
color clearly and rscognss GoG5s @ pescepon 9
color appears, on the contrary, to be very rudl-
mentary.
The author has assured himself that bees
guide themselves almost exclusively by vision
He thus describes an experiment with these
little creatures:
In glass box is placed drop Of honey which ,1s Is
hidden by little hemisphere Of metallic gauze
with large meshes Then some bees when @ nave nave
tasted a little put into the box. Ihe money
should be sufficiently close to the lattice. and the
meshes of the latter ought to be large enough 10
make it very easy for the bees to pass their pro-
boscides through this obstacle and eat at leisure
But if is taken not to soil the lattice WiIh
honey It makes 1t impossible for the bees 10 ouch
their favorte food they walk ABOUT IL Is
astonishing to that all the bees promenade eE- a
the honey, passing and repassing over the lattlce
without stopping, without suspecting the presence
of the liquid for which they are hungering. They
would only have to pass their probosCides through
the lattice In order to satisfy themselves. When
the lattice is they recognize the honey by
accident and eat 1t with avidfty