i88 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



siders the digestive tube of ants to consist of two 

 different parts, one of which the posterior is for 

 the special use of the individual, and the other 

 the anterior part is chiefly for the use of the 

 community. If an ant which has its crop full has 

 been selfish enough to refuse to feed a comrade, it 

 will be treated as an enemy. If the refusal has 

 been made while its kinsfolks were fighting with 

 some other species, they will fall upon the greedy 

 individual with greater vehemence even than upon 

 the enemies themselves. All this has been con- 

 firmed by the most accurate observations and 

 experiments' (20). 



Ants keep slaves. And the slaves, in some in- 

 stances, carry their masters about, feed them, 

 groom them, and attend to their every want, 

 just as human lackeys do helpless aristocrats. 

 In some species the institution of slavery is so 

 old that the physical structures of the masters 

 have been modified until the masters are phy- 

 sically unable to feed themselves, and will perish 

 from hunger, though surrounded by food, if they 

 are left to themselves. The brain of the ant, as 

 Darwin says, is one of the most wonderful bits 

 of matter in the universe. It is scarcely one- 

 fourth the size of the head of a pin, yet it is the 

 seat of the most astonishing wisdom and activity. 

 If human intelligence were as great, compared 

 with the mass of the human brain, as is the ant's, 

 man would be several hundred times as wise as he 

 is now, and would then probably not fall far short 

 of that state of erudition which the average man 



