276 Mternation of Generations, etc., [Nov., 



become perfect and capable of producing ova, unless by some 

 means they can secure a lodgment in the viscera. 



Analogy also points out the similarity of these nurses, the im- 

 mediate type, to what occurs in the economy of ants, wasps and 

 bees. In the former, the nursing is performed by an unconscious 

 activity of an organism apparently, and probably really so, and 

 independent of will. In the latter, as ants, bees, &,c., the nurs- 

 ing is what may be determined a tvilling impulse, or instinct, a 

 voluntary act, always directed to one purpose. This is a pro- 

 gress upon the former condition, and probably in the first, the ac- 

 tivity of an organism is unattended with pleasure, while in the 

 latter enjoyment attends the instinctive impulse, or the conscious 

 instinct. This is not what our author says, but we have herein 

 made an interpolation of our own ideas of the matter. 



Now the difference in the cases of wasps, bees, &c., is this, the 

 foster parent or nurse is an individual which feeds and supports a 

 progeny out of its own body and not within it. The neuter bee 

 for example performs the part of the nurse; it is the foster parent 

 who takes in charge the management of the eggs, and afterwards 

 the larva of the queen bee, who has no more to do with her pro- 

 geny than many modern mothers. But the neuters form first the 

 habitation, put the eggs therein, and when they are hatched sup- 

 ply the necessary food. But this is not all, they provide prospect- 

 ively for the events of a future community. This is effected by 

 putting these eggs, which are designed for workers or neuters, 

 into one order of cells, which are smallest, those which are de- 

 signed for males into another, and the feiiiale into another still 

 more roomy. The larva being hatched, then commences the duty 

 of feeding or nursing them. The individuals in the first order of 

 cells are fed with a poor quality of food. Certain organs in con- 

 sequence both of food and position are undeveloped, they are the 

 small neuter bee. The next order is better fed, the male is con- 

 sequently developed, and in the part; the best food of the commu- 

 nity is furnished and in abundance, and here we have developed 

 the female or queen bee. 



The system requiring nursing individuals, is a remnant of the 

 vegetable economy brought up from a lower grade of existence 

 and destined to expire in the lowest forms which border the out- 

 skirts of the animal kingdom. It is a vegetative function as un- 

 conscious of an end as the forces which develope the acorn or the 

 apple. Says the author, it is the great and significant resemblance 

 to the vegetable kingdom which is presented in the eutozoa as 

 well as in all 7iurse generations, though he regards the state of 

 continued dependance incidental to the animal life, as one of less 

 perfection than that which is presented in the progressive develop- 

 ment effected by the agency of the vegetative life. 



