234 LIFE AND HABIT. 



thing else than puzzled. It remembers a great deal. 

 It comes out a bee, and nothing but a bee ; but it is an 

 aborted bee ; it is, in fact, mutilated before birth instead 

 of after — with instinct, as well as growth, correlated to 

 its abortion, as we see happens frequently in the case 

 of animals a good deal higher than bees that have been 

 mutilated at a stage much later than that at winch the 

 abortion of neuter bees commences. 



The larvae being similar to start with, and being simi- 

 larly mutilated — i.e., by change of food and dwelling, 

 will naturally exhibit much similarity of instinct and 

 structure on arriving at maturity. When driven from 

 their usual course, they must take serine new course or 

 die. There is nothing strange in the fact that similar 

 beings puzzled similarly should take a similar line of 

 action. I grant, however, that it is hard to see how 

 change of food and treatment can puzzle an insect into 

 such " complex growth " as that it should make a cavity 

 in its thigh, grow an invaluable proboscis, and betray 

 a practical knowledge of difficult mathematical pro- 

 blems. 



But it must be remembered that the memory of 

 having been queen bees and drones — which is all that 

 according to my supposition the larvae can remember, 

 (on a first view of the case), in their own proper per- 

 sons — would nevertheless carry with it a potential 

 recollection of all the social arrangements of the hive. 

 They would thus potentially remember that the mass 

 of the bees were always neuter bees ; they would re* 

 member potentially the habits of these bees, so far as 

 drones and queens know anything about them ; and this 



