22 Studies in Animal Behavior 



The same considerations that inspired this utter- 

 ance of Descartes still have weight in determining 

 the attitude of modern students toward problems 

 of animal behavior. In the conclusion of his interest- 

 ing book on the Psychology of Ants and of Higher 

 Animals, Father Wasmann, one of the foremost in- 

 vestigators of the behavior of social insects, writes in 

 regard to modern evolutionary psychology that "By 

 denying the existence of the essential difference be- 

 tween animal and human psychic faculties this psy- 

 chology not only raises brutes to the dignity of man, 

 but degrades man to the level of the brute. Would 

 to God that this were done in theory only; but alas! 

 the practical consequence of this false theory is the 

 demoralization and brutalization of man." 



There is no denying the serious import of the 

 problems about which comparative psychologists do 

 battle. But even if the victory should fall to the 

 most materialistic of the contending parties it is 

 hardly to be expected that the consequences would 

 be as dire as Wasmann surmises. We are bid to 

 beware of the same old scarecrow that has so often 

 appeared in the path of scientific progress. But its 

 aspect is growing less terrible as time passes, and it 

 is always the part of the man of science to go straight 

 ahead as if it were not in existence. 



The first to grapple in a very serious way with 

 the problem of the evolution of instinct was La- 

 marck, although we meet with suggestions in regard 

 to the inheritance of the effects of habits in the writ- 



