Examination of Some Objections. 63 



that careful scientists should trust such reports only 

 with very great reserve. 1 



Furthermore, Forel does not find it appropriate on 

 our part, to compare ants "immediately with man," in 

 our critical examination of "ant-intelligence." Yet, in 

 our book on compound nests and mixed colonies of 

 ants, the question was, whether the so-called intelli- 

 gence of ants was or was not essentially of the same 

 kind as that of man. Consequently it appears necessary 

 to compare ants with man, and not with spiders, birds, 

 or dogs. Moreover, we did not fail to add now and 

 then in our critical discussion on ant-intelligence some 

 remarks that are equally applicable to all animals; 

 whilst in the present work, as well as in the "Compara- 

 tive Studies" we have done so in still fuller measure. 



We also readily grant that animals, especially higher 

 mammals, have as Forel remarks, ''individual charac- 

 teristics," and in our "Comparative Studies" we hope to 

 record many convincing examples from our own ob- 

 servation of the individual differences that appear in 

 the characters of ants of various species, e. g., the raven- 

 ous Red Ant (Formica sanguinea). But, pray, what 

 proof do these examples furnish of "intelligence" and 

 of "spiritual faculties" in animals? Why, even the 

 innate dispositions of the powers of sensile perception 

 and appetite have their individual differences and vari- 

 ations which are essentially connected with the differ- 

 ences of bodily organization ; in other words, with "in- 

 dividual variability." Moreover, these innate psychic 

 differences are liable to increase to a remarkable extent, 



') See Altum, "Der Vogel und sein Leben" (6. Aufl.), p. 208 ff. 



