Social Insects. 43 



room, though blinded as to sight, will fly in all directions with 

 such swiftness and with such infallible certainty of avoiding con 

 cussion or contact, that its feeling at a distance is practically in 

 comprehensible to us. 



The manner in which anything threatening its welfare thrills 

 and agitates one of these insect communities, and causes every 

 individual to act at once for the common good, has been noted 

 by all observers, and is a good illustration in point. It may be 

 likened to the manner in which the same conditions influence 

 communities of other animals, including man. There are emer 

 gencies when intuitive feeling dispossesses reason, and every cap 

 able person seems blindly urged to definite action for the protc-c- 

 tion of the community, regardless of consequence. The war-cry 

 of a nation is an example in point, and violations of otherwise 

 just, but tedious, processes of law, are under certain circumstances 

 deemed justifiable. I shall never forget the emotion that in 

 fluenced the citizens of Chicago the day following their great fire 

 in 1871. Reason, argument, judgment, were in abeyance. The 

 quicker, intuitive processes prevailed, and to meet lawlessness and 

 the tendency to incendiarism, every right-minded citizen was 

 ready to do vigilant duty, regardless of personal interest, every 

 incendiary being hung to the nearest lamp-post, without ado or 

 delay. It was the universal and deep-seated instinct of self-pres 

 ervation. 



TELEPATHY. But however difficult it may be to define this 

 intuitive sense which, while apparently combining some of the 

 other senses, has many attributes peculiar to itself, and however 

 difficult it may be for us to analyze the remarkable sense of direc 

 tion, there can be no doubt that many insects possess the power 

 of communicating at a distance, of which we can form some con 

 ception by what is known as telepathy in man. This power 

 would seem to depend neitner upon scent nor upon hearing, in 

 the ordinary understanding of these senses, but rather on certain 

 subtle vibrations, as difficult for us to apprehend as is the exact 

 nature of electricity. The fact that man can telegraphically 

 transmit sound almost instantaneously around the globe, and that 

 his very speech may be telephonically transmitted, as quickly as 

 uttered, for thousands of miles, may suggest something of this 

 subtle power, even though it furnish no explanation thereof. 



The power of sembling among certain moths, for instance, es- 



