PHILOSOPHIC ANTSi 



y4CCORDING to a recent study by Mr. Shapley 

 /-\ (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., Philadelphia, Vol. 

 -^ -^ VI. p. 204)5 ^^^ normal rate of progression 

 of ants — or at least of the species of ant which he 

 studied — is a function of temperature. For each rise 

 of ten degrees centigrade, the ants go about double 

 as fast. So complete is the dependence that the ants 

 may be employed as a thermometer, measurement 

 of their rate of locomotion giving the temperature 

 to within one degree centigrade. 



The simple consequence — easy of apprehension 

 by us, but infinite puzzlement to ants — is that on a 

 warm day an ant will get through a task four or five 

 times as heavy as she will on a cold one. She does 

 more, thinks more, lives more : more Bergsonian 

 duration is hers. 



There was a time, we learn in the myrmecine 

 annals, when ants were simple unsophisticated folk, 

 barely emerged from entomological barbarism. Some 

 stayed at home to look after the young brood and 

 tend the houses, others went afield to forage. It 



1 Read before the Heretics Club, Cambridge, May 1922. 

 M 



