ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., APRIL, 1917. 



Ants vs. Men. 



The President's address before the Geological Society of 

 America at Albany, December 28, 1916, printed in Science for 

 February 9, 1917, contains some remarks interesting to the 

 entomologist which the latter would hardly look for in a dis- 

 course entitled "The Philosophy of Geology and the Order of 

 the State." The speaker, distinguished and honored for his 

 many contributions to his science, "wishfes] to nail [certain 

 theses] on the doors of our temple" of geology. Among them 

 are 



Nature makes for the individual ... In the progressive line 

 of development which in the present terminates in us, the procedure 

 of nature has been one of only limited concern for the family and of 

 tried out and abandoned experiment for social partnerships and the 

 division of labor. 



A lively account of the "six-legged articulate expression of 

 existence" which "has led to most extraordinary displays of 

 morphological and psychic differentiation," culminating in the 

 ants, "nature's great triumph, her highest performance in com- 

 munistic effort and in co-operative achievement," is brought 

 to the astonishing conclusion that 



The six-legged type with all its purposes, in its highest expression 

 lies prostrate on the ground at our feet, it and its achievements have 

 risen to nothing higher than an ant hill, its communistic relations and 

 subservience are entirely apart from the true genius of humanity 

 . For the former the student of nature's history sees no out- 

 come. 



We say astonishing, for, while we are well aware that the 

 anthropocentric conception of the universe still permeates the 



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