350 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



interpretation, however, appears to break down when 

 carefully considered. To begin with, it assumes that in- 

 telligent action preceded instincts. We find that the 

 higher we go in the animal kingdom the fewer the in- 

 stincts and the greater the intelligence. We only find 

 intelligent action as a very late product in evolution. 



"To place intelligent action before an instinct, in fact, to 

 derive instincts from intelligent actions, seems to be plac- 

 ing the cart before the horse. Another very important 

 point is that the capture of the grasshopper, crickets, and 

 caterpillars, paralyzing them without killing them, and 

 storing them in the nest, is not of the slightest use to the 

 individual wasp. It simply provides food for the larvae 

 which the wasp will never se.e, and of whose needs it can 

 have no experience. This interpretation, in fact, attrib- 

 utes to the wasp a prophetic knowledge with regard to 

 subsequent events, of which neither it nor any of its an- 

 cestors have had any experience." 



You notice Mr. Walker has considered the idea of in- 

 telligence preceding instinct, and discovered its absurd- 

 ity. You notice the wasp is a skilled hunter and surgeon 

 and a good provider. He provides for the future off- 

 spring which he will never see, just as intelligent man 

 provides for future offspring, which he may never see. 

 What right has man, who is made and guided by the same 

 being, the cell, to say that these same acts in the wasp 

 are less intelligent than his. The animals that the wasp 

 captures and carries home to his family are three or four 

 times larger than himself. He has by practise through 

 generations and ages learned that the caterpillar has cer- 

 tain cells that direct the actions of all other cells. These 

 are called nerve centres. He has also found that if he 

 destroyed these the other cells would still live but would 

 not be able to direct any movements of the body of the 



