THE IXTEREST IX IX SECTS 



395 



of cake remained as large as ever, and 

 the ants seemed as helpless as ever, 

 though their labors were not a whit re- 

 laxed. 



A child asked, "Whv don't they 

 break it and take it in piecemeal?" Ah, 

 that question touches the crux of the 

 problem. It marks the fork in the road, 

 one prong leading to human behavior, 

 the other to ant behavior. To carr} 

 the cake from the floor to the aperture 

 was a great achievement requiring pro- 

 longed co-operative effort. But to get 

 it beyond this called for a big dose of 

 adaptive intelligence. Here was a 

 brand new situation which had to 1-e 

 luet in a brand new way. It was evi- 

 dentally necessary to reduce the cake 

 to smaller units, small enough to per- 

 mit their going through the narrow 

 opening. A group of men would have 

 gone right after this. But ant intel- 

 ligence could not rise to the emer- 

 gency. They knew only to be busy as 

 ants, to imitate their more alert com- 

 rades, to work together, to drag and 

 push, to try again, and over and over 

 again. 



I made my last observation at about 

 ten o'clock. I had been out of the 

 room for half an hour. Returning I 

 turned on a light and mounted my ob- 

 servatory, a wooden box on a chair. I 

 was not at attention more than two or 

 three seconds when the ants loosened 

 their hold and the cake toppled to the 

 floor. Poor little creatures, to lose all 

 after so much toil ! Was it the sudden 

 change of light, my breath, or both 

 that induced them to drop their load? 

 Did fatigue have anything to do with 

 it? My impression is that I came too 

 near and that they were suddenly 

 alarmed on becoming aware of my 

 breath. I permitted the cake to re- 

 main where it had fallen on the floor. 

 The following morning it had disap- 

 peared. 



At one time or another who has not 

 watched the ceaseless, tireless labors 

 of ants? And as he watched who has 

 not marvelled at their feverish tasks 

 performed almost always in comrade- 

 ship ? And as he marvelled who has 

 not been tempted to explore the crypts 

 of the animal mind? And as he ex- 

 plored, who has not asked questions 

 which no biologist, no psychologist, no 

 philosopher could answer certainly? 

 The community life of ants, their end- 

 less toiling, the division of labor 



among their fixed castes, and their cos- 

 mopolitan distribution, are all so sug- 

 gestive of human society that their ap- 

 peal to men's imagination is well nigh 

 universal. Zoologist and layman, 

 adult and child, are struck by many 

 analogies with human life ; all are 

 charmed and interested though the 

 a\enuc of approach is different in each 

 case. 



While we should avoid sinning with 

 earlier observers in "humanizing the 

 brute," (as Wasmann, eniinent ento- 

 mologist and Jesuit priest, happily 

 phrases it) we must also avoid the 

 opposite temptation to regard animals, 

 even the most primitive ones, as mere 

 chemicophysical automatons, capable 

 of making only stereotyped "reactions" 

 to outside contacts- — much as a self- 

 vending machine drops you a packet 

 of gum, chocolate, or peanuts, depend- 

 ing on the slot chosen to insert the 

 coin. This assumption is the outcome 

 of a highly perfected laboratory tech- 

 nique, admirable in itself and in its re- 

 sults, but at best capable of getting 

 only half the story. Abundant field 

 study, that is, an examination of nature 

 under natural conditions, should go 

 hand in hand with experimentation, if 

 we are to get anything like a fairlv 

 representative likeness of the animal 

 mind. And still another instrument, 

 often scorned by professional "behav- 

 iorists," and yet as fruitful and legitimate 

 (if not as mathematically perfect) a 

 means of canvassing the truth, is the 

 use in scientific interpretation, of the 

 humanly human qualities of sympathy 

 and imagination. 



By way of definition, it is enough for 

 the needs of this article, to say that in- 

 telligence is ability to profit by person- 

 al experience and is brought into play 

 for purely personal ends ; while instinct 

 is rooted in racial experience and is 

 brought into play for racial ends. 

 The daily life of ants is largely 

 a chain of instinctive releases. Now 

 and then, however, we run into 

 something in their behavior which 

 even the most skeptical must regard 

 as intelligence. Indeed, this is a good 

 place to review some of the evidence 

 which supports this view. 



Forel tells us that an ant may go far 

 afield from its ruined nest. Chancing 

 on a suitable spot for a new home, it 

 will return and deport a fellow worker 

 to the favored place. These two may 



