Ixiv 
Finally, M. Faivre draws these principal conclusions :— ; 
First. That even among the lower animals the distinction between 
sensibility and excitability holds good, proving thus the constancy 
and the generality of the physiological plan upon which the nervous 
system is established. 
Secondly. The ganglionic chain of insects is the analogue of the 
spinal chord, and like the latter is divisible into motor and sensitive 
portions. 
These investigations show clearly the correspondence which exists 
between the nervous system of insects and that of the higher 
animals. 
Strictly perhaps the struggles and contortions of an insect when it 
is wounded are no absolute proof that itis capable of suffering, yet 
there are few who can entertain a doubt on the question. And so 
also, strictly speaking, no proof has yet been adduced that insects 
possess the gift of reason; still the study of their actions and habits 
leaves, to my mind, as little doubt in the one case as in the other. 
Trees must be judged by their fruits and animals by their actions. 
Look, then, at the ants: they build houses, they keep domestic 
animals, and they make slaves; if we deny to them the possession of 
reason we might almost as well question it in the lower races of 
Man: insects cannot speak, indeed, but they evidently communicate 
by means of their antenne, just like certain North-American Indians 
who cannot understand one another’s language, but who can yet 
converse together with ease and fluency by a code of signs which are 
the same over a large area and among tribes whose spoken languages 
are entirely dissimilar. : 
In the face of the facts recorded by the Hubers and other observers, 
nothing but the force of preeonceived ideas could make us hesitate 
to regard the ant or the bee as reasoning beings. 
It is manifestly unfair to compare an insect with man, or even with 
the horse or dog. Reason is based on experience, and this the insect 
can never acquire owing to the shortness of its life. If the com- 
parison is made at all, the ant or bee should be compared with a 
puppy or an infant, and it may well be questioned then to which an 
impartial observer would attribute the highest nervous organization. 
Kvery one knows that the movements of the body can be regulated 
only by long practice; a baby cannot command its arms or legs any 
more than its thoughts, and the power of regulating them is acquired 
as gradually in the one case as in the other. 
