The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-20

washingtoa, D. C.. Oct l9-Did
ron ever imagine what the world
to . bee or an ant? Put
ting yourself in an insects place Is
not just . matter Of picturing your
normal self reduced million or 30
times and walking about seeing
as loayes Of bread ana
Jumps in the carpet As mountains.
You must build up q new world,
one that is more fantastic than H.
G. Wells idea Of Mars. And even
then a human being can have only
q dim conception of what life would
be il he had six legs and depended
on his sense OF smell more than
his eyes to tell him what the world
Is like.
II you fancy yourself q worker
in the bee world, for example. you
must imagine yourself recognizing
hive neighbors by their distinctive
odor. Family resemblance in the
social order of bees is a matter Of
hive and family odor rather than
Of peculiar appearance.
When you returned home after
a lopg journey in search Of nectar
the sentinel at the door would
know you by the odor Of the hive
which you carried. II by some
mishap you became lost or injured
and did not return to the hive for
several days the hive odor would
gradually become faint and when
you arrived the guardian Of the
door would sound the warning that
q stranger was trying to break in.
The result would be a tragic end
ing Of your useful career.
;. AS honey bee wou would have
an intense passion for sweet things,
and if scientist got you in his
power and put you to. work in his
experiments you would show him
that q bee cannot be fooled by bit
ter salts in candy. You would be
a cDnnoisseur to the extent of rec
ognizing the difference between
candy containing strychnine and
candy containing quinine when the
scientist himself could not detect
any difference in taste.
These random glimpses OF life in
an Insects world are gathered from
the experiments of DR.. N. E. Nc
Indoo of the bureau of entomology.
DR.. McIndoo recently has publish
ed q paper On the senses of insects
in which he explains his latest OBJ
servations and conclusions, especi-
ally those relating to the olfactory
sense.
Insects Have . New Science.
"In regard to odors," he says,
insects have already evolved a
new science and are capable OF
classifying and aralyzing doors
many Of which are unknown to us
Furthermore, they have evolved
special organs for producing odors
and highly developed ones for re-
ceiving them. In fact, the olfac-
tory sense Of insects, particularly
in the honey bee, is SO highly de-
velOped r''rt we do not have any
more { lion Of it than does the
honey 49, Ut it could think as we
do) Of our wonderfully developed
sense of sight, which is able to dis
tinguish accurately the size, form
and color of objects"
| Science for centuries has puzzled
over mysteries of animal life and
wondered how some of the tiny
creatures are unerringly guided te
their mates, to food, and to theil
homes. 1t was proved long age
that sight plays a minor part in in
sect life. Some scientists attribute
the remarkable feats Of insects t,
instinct and others believe tina
strange occult powers guide them
Still other entomologists are per
suaded that one Of the five senses
highly developed, must rule insec
activities as sight rules human
life.
DR.. McIndoo believes that a keel
olfactory sense ACCOUNTS for mucl
of the extraordinary behavior o