Social Insects. 59 



vertebrate type as exemplified in man, had the former continued 

 its development so as to approximate, say, the eagle in bodily 

 size and man in brain development. That the Arthropod type 

 could attain to such dimensions is evidenced in the Euryp- 

 terus or water scorpion which prevailed in early geologic times, 

 and attained a length of six feet; while a modern Japanese crab 

 (Megachilus kaempferi) has a spread of ten or twelve feet, and is a 

 formidable creature. 



For very much the same selfish reasons that begot most of our 

 earlier notions as to man's origin and place, it has been assumed 

 that he represents the perfection of the animal organization, the 

 highest expression of an all- wise Creator. Following this same 

 idea, our own world, it has been reasoned, is the only one peopled. 

 Now it has never seemed to me that there was any justification 

 for the assumption that existing forms of plants or animals must 

 of necessity have assumed the physical or mental characteristics 

 which belong to them, considering the myriad forms which have 

 preceded us and gone, or the many which are yet with us, but 

 fast going. Remembering, also, that the race is not always to the 

 swift, nor the battle to the strong, there would seem to be no 

 valid reason why, on some other sphere, under like, or even 

 under unlike conditions, life may not have taken on other 

 distinctive types or attained developments inconceivable to us ; 

 or, for that matter, why it might not have been differently mani 

 fested upon our own little earth. 



Place the directing enginery of the human brain in a body with 

 a hard, external skeleton, which should at once be a defensive 

 armor against exterior attack, a protection to all the vital organs, 

 and yet allow free play to every possible movement; with a 

 breathing system that is multiple, and therefore less liable to get 

 out of order than where it is concentrated in one place ; with six 

 or more legs ; extremities variously differentiated, so as to enable 

 one pair of them to perform the functions of our hands, while 

 other pairs possessed greater prehensile, tactile or other special 

 ized powers; with powerful primary and with supplemental jaws; 

 with all the senses and sense organs we possess and others added ; 

 with simple and compound or telescopic eyes combined in the 

 same individual; with a venomous, offensive and defensive 

 weapon ; with a social organization in which working, fighting 

 and reproductive elements are well differentiated and yet under 



