. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. 126 THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. [March 12, 1891. animal (excepting insecta) I can think of, that is attracted or repelled by odour, demands the mechanism for the inhalation of air-currents. With the bee, which we all 'know is violently attracted or repelled by agreeable or disagree- able odour, I believe the scent-atoms strike im- mediately on those telephone-receiver-like de- pressions on the antennae, which communicate the impression to the thought-centre precisely as do the scent-cells in our own nostrils. When- ever we notice bees under t
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. 126 THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. [March 12, 1891. animal (excepting insecta) I can think of, that is attracted or repelled by odour, demands the mechanism for the inhalation of air-currents. With the bee, which we all 'know is violently attracted or repelled by agreeable or disagree- able odour, I believe the scent-atoms strike im- mediately on those telephone-receiver-like de- pressions on the antennae, which communicate the impression to the thought-centre precisely as do the scent-cells in our own nostrils. When- ever we notice bees under the influence of odour the antennas are somewhat raised forward, so that the scent-atoms borne about by the air may strike the drum-like disc and vibrate them on the nerve-tip, which we believe is the true organ of smell. Whenever we notice bees ap- proach an odorous substance the antennae are first placed over it, for the reason just stated. Returning for a moment to the agreeable or disgusting qualities of odour, let me impress upon you the fact that attraction or revulsion are almost always only questions of the intensity of the smell given off. Try most odours—musk, hawthorn, orange, heather, clover, the smell of apples, pears, and. many fruits, the scents of lilies, violets, and most flowers—in intensity, and even on our notoriously coarse olfactory nerves theie is an exceedingly objectionable effect produced. On the other hand, let us attenuate—by spirit, water, or air—nearly every objectionable smell, and the sensation becomes agreeable, so that the bee finds delicious what may annoy us, and is sometimes intensely an- noyed at what we may deem agreeable odours. This is the case with many human beings who have more or less sensitive smell-organs. We find precisely the same thing with the essential active principles of plants; diluted they are potent medicines, whilst in intensity they are deadly poisons. Again, we find insects which, in their larval state, feed on
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