202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



deprived of its legitimate exercise, have always been a disturbing 

 force in society. On the other hand, emasculation, instead of as 

 might have been perhaps, a priori, anticipated increasing the powers 

 of body and mind, enfeebles both. What would be the moral and 

 social effects of the appearance of a neutral form of the human species 

 analogous to the working bee or ant it is impossible to foresee; but 

 w 7 e may venture to surmise that they would not be entirely desirable. 1 



It may be suggested that the institution of caste among so many 

 human races is an adumbration of the natural castes existing among 

 social insects, each devoted to some especial function. 



The remarkable intelligence of ants has from very early ages 

 made a profound impression on man. Cicero considered them pos- 

 sessed of " mind, reason, and memory." 2 To the present day those 

 who watch the formicary, not in order to defend prepossessions, but 

 to arrive at truth, come to the same conclusion, unpopular though it 

 may be. We sometimes wonder whether ants, like men, consider- 

 themselves the sole reasonable beings on the globe, prove their posi- 

 tion by sound a priori arguments, and accuse those who take a differ- 

 ent view of " skepticism" or "agnosticism." 



When it is no longer possible to meet with a flat denial all in- 

 stances of correct inferences drawn and of happy contrivances adopted 

 by brutes in general and by ants in particular, the writers who still 

 claim reason as the exclusive prerogative of man bring forward a 

 curious objection : they urge that we should likewise collect proofs of 

 animal folly and stupidity, and seem to think that these latter in- 

 stances would nullify any conclusion that might be drawn from the 

 former. That instances are numerous where some animal fails to 

 draw an inference very-obvious, in our view or to adopt some very 

 simple expedient, we do not deny, and that their conduct hence seems 

 strangely checkered, we admit. What, e. g., can seem more incon- 

 sistent than the following cases? Sir John Lubbock, to test the in- 

 telligence of ants, placed a strip of paper so as to serve as a bridge 

 or ladder for some ants which were carrying their pupae by a very 

 roundabout way. The slip was, however, purposely left short of its 

 destination by some small fraction of an inch. It would have been 

 very easy for the ants either to have dropped themselves and their 

 burden down this short distance, or to have handed the pupse to the 

 other ants below, or to have piled up a small amount of earth from 

 below, so as to meet the slip of paper, and thus make the descending- 

 road continuous. They adopted, however, none of these expedients, 

 but continued to travel the roundabout way. 



'It is very remarkable that among the Termites, which, though improperly called 

 " white ants," belong to a different order of insects, neuters exist. These, however, do 

 not appear to be imperfectly developed females. It would thus seem that among insects 

 social organization necessitates a class of sexless individuals. 



2 " Mens, ratio, et memoria." 



