130 LIFE : OUTLINES OE GENERAL BIOLOGY 



inference, rising high above the intelligence or perceptual inference 

 beyond which animals do not seem to attain; he has a more or less 

 clear consciousness of his history, and he is evolving a social con- 

 science; he has the power, if he would oftener exercise it, of guiding 

 his conduct in reference to ideals, social as well as personal ; he has 

 apparently unlimited possibilities of ameliorating his social heritage 

 and making it more available ; in a new way he can in some measure 

 control his own evolution. The story of social animals is interesting 

 and suggestive, with many warnings and not without inspirations, 

 but it is not as yet more than the first sketch of an introductory 

 chapter to Human Sociology. 



It is evident, however, that it would be great gain if we could begin 

 to formulate some general conclusions in regard to animal anticipa- 

 tions of human societies. Great as the gulf is, there must be valuable 

 suggestions from prehuman experiments in sociality. We all know 

 scores of extraordinarily interesting facts in regard to ants, bees, 

 wasps, termites, rookeries, beaver villages, herds and packs and 

 troops; but are there any general conclusions? In many animal 

 societies experiments have been made which take our breath away 

 in their daring. Can we learn from them ? 



Thus there is the experiment of having a specialised repro- 

 ductive caste, as in queen-bees and drones. There is the experi- 

 ment of having individuals set apart to be reservoirs of the 

 communal wealth, as in the bloated honey-ants that hang like 

 small golden grapes from the rafters, to be tapped when the 

 time comes. There is the experiment of eliminating the surplus 

 population, as in the fatal cold-shouldering of the drone-bees 

 as the season advances, and its gradual accentuation into an 

 almost vicious use of the poisoned stiletto. There is the experiment 

 some ants have made of keeping slaves, with the result that the 

 gentry have become unable not only to forage, but to chew. There is 

 the termite experiment of keeping up a military class, whose jaws, 

 specialised for combat, are unable to masticate the dry-as-dust food 

 of these strange ascetes. They have to be fed, not very daintily, 

 by the workers. Most prominent of all is the beehive experiment of 

 having an enormous proletariat of arrested females, obsessed by a 

 mania for "work", for a self-subordinating industry which allows 

 them a life of about six weeks or two months in summer. 



SOCIAL ACTIVITIES.— In what forms of activity does the social 

 life of animals find expression? 



(a) There are corporate enterprises of many kinds, often subtly 

 intermingled. It may be for defence, like wasps against an intruder, 

 or soldier-termites against the assaults of true ants. It may be for 

 attack, as when small birds "mob" a hawk or an owl. It may be 

 in food-getting, as when pelicans wading in a half-circle close in upon 



