FEMALE GOVERNMENT 



ing to size, scattered throughout the nurseries. No 

 observer has yet conclusively noted such treatment as 

 prevails in beehives, where male and female eggs are 

 separated from ordinary workers, and a queen can be 

 developed from a worker larva by enlarged quarters 

 and specially enriched food. The larva? of all ant castes 

 and sexes seem to be kept in common and to receive like 

 attention. The nurses continually hover over them. 

 They lick them as a cat does her kittens. The larvae 

 learn to perk up their wee black heads and open their 

 mouths, into which the nurses place food and drink. 

 They shift their positions from side to side, sometimes 

 from room to room, sometimes with apparent good rea- 

 son often, one fancies, simply from the overflow and 

 outgo of such maternal sentiment as leads a young 

 mother to dandle and fondle her infant offspring, cooing 

 the while her love-phrases or love-songs; a spectacle 

 truly pleasing to the observer at least, and doubtless 

 often to the infant. Certainly herein the female temper- 

 ament shows its supremacy (Fig. 73). 



Some readers who, like the author, have seen service 

 in active military campaigns, know that male soldiers 

 can be organized into a hospital corps for effective nurs- 

 ing of sick and wounded comrades. Many of us carry 

 remembrances of how bravely and well, with what devo- 

 tion and fidelity, this duty has often been done. Here 

 and there, too, men have developed special qualities 

 that have made them pre-eminent in the delicate and 

 difficult service. 



But what veteran, who has had the opportunity to 

 observe, has not noticed the vast change that the en- 

 trance of trained female nurses has brought into the 

 field? There are deftness and sympathy and tender- 



165 



