40 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



labouring with the utmost harmony for the common 

 good. Various observers had recorded, in the case of 

 ants, instances of attachment and affection. In the 

 whole course of his observations he had never seen a 

 quarrel between two ants belonging to the same nest ; 

 within the limits of the community all was harmony. 

 On the other hand, it must be confessed that ants 

 not belonging to the same nest were always enemies, even 

 if belonging to the same species. Among ants, as 

 among men, all were not Grood Samaritans. Numerous 

 experiments he had made, with a view to test the 

 characteristics of ants in this and other matters. He 

 had even gone so far as to make a number drunk 

 by putting them into spirits, since no ant would 

 voluntarily degrade herself by getting drunk. The 

 sober ants seemed much puzzled at finding their friends 

 in this helpless and discreditable state. They took 

 them up, and carried them about for a while in an 

 aimless sort of way, as if they did not know what 

 to do with their drunkards any more than we do. 

 Ultimately, however, the results were these : the 

 ants removed twenty-five friends and thirty strangers. 

 Of the friends twenty were carried into the nest, and 

 five were thrown into the water. Of the strangers, 

 on the contrary, twenty-four were picked up, taken to 

 the edge of the moat, and thrown, or rather dropped, 

 into the water; only six were taken into the 

 nest, and these were shortly afterwards brought out 

 again and thrown away. Ants had the power of 

 remembering and of recognizing their friends, and had 

 been known to fall into mutual caresses with their 



