242 NASCENT REASON, EMOTION, 



from their disinclination to take a small leap, may be due 

 simply to their defective sight. A sense of Smell, how- 

 ever keen, would scarcely afford sufficient guidance to 

 tempt an animal to jump, and the very small laterally- 

 placed eyes of the English ants would probably not be very 

 serviceable in the accomplishment of such an act. 



Bees have been commonly reputed to show signs of 

 Compassion for their fellows when injury or misfortune 

 overtakes them. In regard to this, Sir John Lubbock 

 says * : 



" It is, no doubt, true that when they have got any honey on 

 them, they are always licked clean by the others ; but I am satisfied 

 that this is for the sake of the honey rather than of the bee. On 

 the 27th of September, for instance, I tried with two bees: one had 

 been drowned, the other was smeared with honey. The latter was 

 soon licked clean, of the former they took no notice whatever. I 

 have, moreover, repeatedly placed dead bees by honey on which live 

 ones were feeding, but the latter never took the slightest notice of 

 the corpses." Further experiments confirmed this opinion, as in his 

 second paper (loc. cit., vol. xii. p. 231) Sir John Lubbock says : " far 

 indeed from having been able to discover any evidence of affection 

 amongst them, they appear to be thoroughly callous and utterly 

 indifferent to one another." 



No evidence was forthcoming to show that the behaviour 

 of English Ants to wounded comrades was very different 

 (loc. cit., p. 492), though it is true that those which were 

 marked and then returned to their nests, usually had the 

 paint cleaned off by their fellows.-f- But Mr. Belt, in his 

 " Naturalist in Nicaragua," cites some very remarkable 

 instances of sympathetic helpfulness, which were displayed 

 by ' foraging Ants ' towards unfortunate comrades. He 

 says : 



" One day when watching a small column of these ants (Eciton 

 * Loc. cit., vol. xii. p. 128. f Loc. cit., vol. xiii. p. 230. 



