Excerpt from The Innervation of the Integument of Chiroptera The first investigation of the sensitiveness of the skin of bats, so far as the writer has been able to ascertain, was the well known experiment of Spallanzani in 1798. This investigator blinded bats, and observed that they avoided with accuracy not only large obstacles placed in their way, but even silken threads stretched in such a manner as to leave only sufficient space for the bats to pass between with their wings expanded. In 1796 Cuvier called attention to the exquisite sense of touch in the membranous skin covering the wings and ears. Upon examination he found the wings to be supplied with an enormous number of nerves. He inferred that during flight the blinded bat, on approaching the object, sets up air currents, which, reacting on the sensitive patagium and ears, enable the animal to perceive and to avoid the obstacle. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.