Ck. II.] REASONING IN AXIS. 27 



been human beings, and this to meet a danger that can 

 be only of the rarest occurrence. Amongst the ants of 

 Central America I place the Eciton as the first in intel- 

 ligence, and as such at the head of the Articulata. 

 Wasps and bees come next, and then others of the 

 Hymenoptera. Between ants and the lower forms of 

 insects there is a greater difference in reasoning powers 

 than there is between man and the lowest mammalian. 

 A recent writer has augured that of all animals ants 

 approach nearest to man in their social condition.* 

 Perhaps if we could learn their wonderful language we 

 should find that even in their mental condition they 

 also rank next to humanity. 



I shall relate two more instances of the use of a 

 reasoning faculty in these ants. I once saw a wide 

 column trying to pass along a crumbling, nearly perpen- 

 dicular, slope. They would have got very slowly over 

 it, and many of them would have fallen, but a number 

 having secured their hold, and reaching to each 

 other, remained stationary, and over them the main 

 column passed. Another time they were crossing a 

 water- course along a small branch, not thicker than a 

 goose- quill. They widened this natural bridge to three 

 times its width by a number of ants clinging to it and 

 to each other 011 each side, over which the column 

 passed three or four deep ; whereas excepting for this 

 expedient they would have had to pass over in single 

 file, and treble the time would have been consumed. 

 Can it be contended that such insects are not able to 

 determine by reasoning powers which is the best way of 



* Houzeau Etudes sur les Facultes inentales des Aniniaux com- 

 parees a celles de I'Komme. 



