26 Journal of the Mitchell Society [December 



nest and storinj^ them through the winter, shifting their position in its 

 tunnels with the changes of the temperature so that it will not be in- 

 jured, then hatching the egg in the sun in the spring and placing the 

 young nymph on the proper food plant. All this in order that the 

 ants' descendants may have an abundant supply of honey dew for 

 their nourishment. What are the mental processes of the eumenes 

 wasp as it fashions the clay into pottery of the most charming design — 

 a design so artistic that man has copied it as his very own. What arc 

 the mental processes of the tiny caterpillars as they weave their mar- 

 velous gossamer threads and become the earth's first aeronauts? 

 What are the fungus ants thinking about as they prepare a fertile field 

 and sow upon it the spores of a certain species of fungus in order that 

 their children may have an abundance of food? What of the mental 

 processes of the scarab as it rolls its ball of dung often many weary in- 

 sect miles in order to provision its nest for its larva? Why does each 

 species of scarab store its nest with the clung of certain animals only? 

 What is the psychological process of the queen bee that causes her to 

 lay only unfertilized eggs in drone cells? What are the slave-making 

 ants "thinking about" when they make a raid on the nest of another 

 species, kill the adults, kidnap the larvae and pupae, carrying them 

 away to their nests where they are raised to adults to serve their cap- 

 tors? 



We see these questions about us every day and we ask the question 

 "Why?" and we reply very wisely with the magical word "instincts." 

 Which is a very learned and very scientific way of saying that we 

 know nothing about it. 



In ordinary speech, the word "instinct" stands for all the heredi- 

 tary and automatic revelations of activity, from simple tropisms to the 

 most complicated outward manifestations of individual memory. In- 

 stinctive acts are stereotyped, being ever the same when responding 

 to stimuli of the same nature, and almost always adapted to their ob- 

 ject, although not resulting from previous experience on the part of the 

 individual. To define them more precisely is impossible for they are 

 varied and complex, overlapping one another and often becoming so 

 confused as to render difficult the tracing of their limits. Neverthe- 

 less, we should not place them all on the same level and attribute to 

 them all a common origin. Tropic reactions are due to the properties 

 of living matter, rhythms presuppose an organic memory and hence 

 a period of education, ancient or recent; but this apprenticeship is 

 purely mechanical and dependent upon the stimuli that produce it. 



