174 Sir John Luhhock [May 9, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 9, 1879. 



H.K.H. Prince Frederick Christian of Schleswig Holstein, 

 Hon. M.E.I, in the Chair. 



Sir John Lubbock, Bart. M.P. V.P.R.S. D.C.L. LL.D. M.B.I. 



The Habits of Ants. 



Mr. Grote, in his * Fragments on Ethical Subjects,' regards it as 

 an evident necessity that no society can exist without the sentiment 

 of morality. " Everyone," he says, " who has either spoken or 

 written on the subject, has agreed in considering this sentiment as 

 absolutely indispensable to the very existence of society. Without 

 the diffusion of a certain measure of this feeling throughout all the 

 members of the social union, the caprices, the desires, and the 

 passions of each separate individual would render the maintenance of 

 any established communion impossible. Positive morality, under 

 some form or other, has existed in every society of which the world 

 has ever had experience." 



If this be so, the question naturally arises whether ants also are 

 moral and accountable beings. They have their desires, their passions, 

 even their caprices. The young are absolutely heli)less. Their com- 

 munities are sometimes so numerous, that perhaps London and Pekin 

 are almost the only human cities which can compare with them. 

 Moreover their nests are no mere collections of independent 

 individuals, nor even temporary associations like the flocks of 

 migratory birds ; but organized communities labouring with the 

 utmost harmony for the common good. The remarkable analogies 

 which they present in so many ways to our human societies render 

 them peculiarly interesting to us, and one cannot but long to know 

 more of their character, how the world appears to them, and to what 

 extent they are conscious and reasonable beings. 



For my own part I cannot make use of Mr. Grote's argument, 

 because I have elsewhere attempted to show that, even as regards 

 man, the case is not by any means clear. But, however, this may be, 

 various observers have recorded in the case of ants instances of 

 attachment and affection. 



In various memoirs, published by the Linnean Society, I have 

 discussed these instances, having reluctantly come to the conclusion 

 that some of them at any rate rest on a very doubtful foundation. 



