28 ARE THE EFFECTS OF USE INHERITED? 



we may believe that natural selection, unop- 

 posed by use-inheritance, is equally competent for 

 the work of complex or social or mental evolution 

 in the many cases where the strong presumptive 

 evidence cannot be rendered almost indisputable 

 by the exceptional exclusion of the modified 

 animal from the work of reproduction. 



Ants and bees seem to be capable of altering 

 their habits and methods of action much as men 

 do. Bees taken to Australia cease to store 

 honey after a few years' experience of the mild 

 winters. Whole communities of bees sometimes 

 take to theft, and live by plundering hives, first 

 killing the queen to create dismay among the 

 workers. Slave ants attend devotedly to their 

 captors, and fight against their own species. 

 Forel reared an artificial ant-colony made up 

 of five different and more or less hostile species. 

 Why cannot a much more intelligent animal 

 modify his habits far more rapidly and compre- 



