The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-03-17

In fact, the sense OF taste proves 10
be merely one phase of the olfactory
sense. or sense of smell. In testing
the sense of these insects the fol-
lowing substances we're the most
important ones used: Vinegar, lime
sulphur, kerosene, carbolic acid, for
mic acid, oil of peppermint, quinine
and strychnine, and various other
salts mixed with cane sugar and
honey, besides other candies made
of various sugars and honey. DR..
McIndoo began by feeding the bees
several substances from which five
classes were chosen to study the eff
fects; repellant, sweet, bitter, sour
and salty substances, the four latter
being representative of the attributes
of human taste.
The experim ents show that bees
like honey best of all foods, and that
] they are able to distinguish the diff
ferences between various kinds Of
honey; that they have likes and dis
likes, and that they can distinguish
in foods differences not perceptible
to the writer. Oil of peppermint,
which is agreeable to man, is dis
tasteful to bees, while on the con-
trary, another substance which the
experimenter did not like seemed to
please the bees.
1t was also discovered that the
bees must first eat more or less of
certain foods before they can dis
] tinguish between them, indicating
that they have a true gus
tatory sense unless this discrimina-
tion is made possible by means of
the olfactory sense. Since 1t was not
possible to determine this point by
experiment, the author made a thor
ough study of the sense organs on or
near the mouth of the bee. After
studying the anatomy of the two gen.
eral types of sense organs, innervat-
ed hares and pores, the author de-
cided that the bee possesses only a
sense of smell, although. judging
from the experiments to find the likes
and dislikes of bees as regards foods,
the indications were that bees also
had a sense more or less similar to
our sense of taste.
During his experiments he also
investigated the tactile sense, or the
! sense of touch, of the honey bee, and
believes that with the organs for that
purpose the bee is enabled to mold
in uniform thickness the walls of all
it's cells. He also Investigated the
manner in which bees eat liquid foods
by capillary attraction and by O
pumping force which they possess.
Solid substances, which they cannot
eat at once, are dissolved by the ap-
phcation of saliva. He discovered
that many solid substances, which
are not previously smelled by the
bees, release odors through the ply
steal or chemical changes brought
about when they are dissolved by
saliva. These odors are first receiv-
ed by the olfactory organs of the
mouth parts which are the nearest
and for this reason the so-called taste
sense seems to be only phase of
the sense Of smell Of bees.
DR.. McIndoo and the few other
scientists who have fed insects foods
containing undesirable substances,
have observed that they refuse such
foods after eating more or less of
them. From this observation the
other authors have concluded that
insects can taste, although they have
not ascertained whether they possess
sense organs anatomically adapted
for tasting, nor have they considered
the role played by the sense of smell
in these responses. DR.. McIndoo
says that it is almost impossible to
determine whether we taste or smell
certain substances when we eat them.
Before being eaten by us a food some
tlinCo Ohiy q idiht ouOi VI hOhO
at all; but when we eat 1t a pro-
nounced odor is perceived. showing
that in such cases the odorous par
ticles are not given off until the food
is taken into the mouth and mixed
with saliva. The same principle
seems applicable when bees eat can
dy which contains undesirable sub
stances emitting extremely weak
odors. The authors experiments
during four years convince him that
the olfactory sense of the bee is
much keener than that of man. FL
nally, he believes that their olfacto-
ry sense is highly developed and that
1t serves them as a sense of smell and
taste combined.
Despite the popular interest in DIR.
McIndoo's report on his investiga-
ton, the publication itself is quite
technical and is distributed primari-
ly to Libraries and to entomologists.