196 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



"behaved in this manner, showing that the action was instinctive, 

 and not the result of experience." Here there has been developed 

 a series of responsive acts indicating a degree of relationship of a 

 highly intimate character, and illustrating the fact that communica- 

 tion by touch in lower life may be of very perfect kind. The 

 consideration of the utilitarian and instinctive nature of the act in 

 no sense invalidates the inference that a language of touch exists 

 and perfectly fulfils the requirements of the lower life which has 

 developed it. 



The problem of the communication of lower animals by signs or 

 touch is of course of difficult nature, and in many of its phases im- 

 possible of solution. But that means for communicating intelligence 

 do exist, is an unquestionable fact. No doubt exists that ants recog- 

 nise their neighbours belonging to the same nest ; yet, considering 

 that in some nests the number of inhabitants may amount to one 

 hundred thousand, it seems well-nigh hopeless to undertake the 

 explanation of their means of communication, or their grounds 

 of recognition. Nor are these grounds rendered clearer by the 

 facts related by Sir John Lubbock concerning the recognition of 

 friends and strangers, even in the young state. " If the recognition," 

 says this author, " were effected by means of some signal or password, 

 then, as it can hardly be supposed that the larvae or pupae would be 

 sufficiently intelligent to appreciate, still less to remember it, the 

 pupae which were entrusted to ants from another nest would have 

 the password, if any, of that nest, and not of the one from which 

 they had been taken. Hence, if the recognition were effected by 

 some password, or sign with the antennae, they would be amicably 

 received in the nest from which their nurses had been taken, but not 

 in their own" unless, indeed, the knowledge of their own password 

 be regarded as a matter of inherited instinct like the chief acts and 

 details of ant, wasp, or bee life. A number of pupae were taken by 

 Sir John Lubbock from nests tenanted by two different species, and 

 placed in small glasses, " some with ants from their own nest, some 

 with ants from another nest of the same species." The result was, 

 that thirty-two ants of the two species taken from their nests in the 

 pupa (or chrysalis) state, " attended by friends, and restored to their 

 own nest, were all amicably received." In another case of twenty- 

 two ants which, as pupae, had been brought up by strangers and 

 afterwards returned to their own nest, "twenty were amicably re- 

 ceived, though in several cases after some hesitation." The result 

 of such experiments seems to show that ants of the same family 

 circle do not recognise each other by any password ; whilst, in some 

 cases, ants brought up by strangers, and then restored to their 

 friends, may be received by some of their relatives with hesitation. 

 It is, however, equally notable, that strangers placed in a nest 



