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 then seized several bees, forced them to unfold their proboscises, and stopped their mouths with paste. When this was sufficiently dry to prevent their getting rid of it, he restored them to their liberty; they appeared by no means incommoded at being thus gagged, but moved about and breathed as readily as their companions. Huber then tempted them with honey, and presented to them, near the mouth, oil of turpentine and other odours that they usually have an aversion to; but all produced no sensible effect upon them, and they even walked upon pencils saturated with them!