214 INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 
acts—if they do signify particular things—has not been 
discovered. ‘The general upshot of a long series of experi- 
ments by Lubbock is that an ant, while having the power 
of leading others to food, is unable to inform its comrades 
as to the whereabouts of food so that they may reach it by 
themselves. Lubbock allowed ants to take food and go back 
to the nest; when these ants returned accompanied by several 
companions the former were caught in order to discover if 
their companions would then be able to find the food alone. 
This they rarely succeeded in doing, although they would 
scurry about in various directions as if seeking something. 
These facts seem to show that the communication of the 
location of food or other desirable objects is, as Romanes 
has expressed it, “in the nature of some sign amounting to 
no more than a ‘follow me.’” While ants may not be able 
to talk about things in their sign language, they apparently 
express their different feelings and inclinations in ways which 
are intelligible to other ants. Wasmann has compiled a 
sort of vocabulary of signs made by the antennse—a “‘Worter- 
buch der Fiiblersprache,”’ which is about as extensive as 
Mr. Garner’s language of apes. According to the vigor 
and frequency of the strokes of the antennz, and the part 
of the body stroked, the ant which is addressed may be im- 
portuned for food, warned of danger, or induced to codperate 
with the communicant in various activities. Naturally one 
is inclined to be skeptical regarding what seems like many 
of the romantic tales of animal psychology, but Wasmann 
is expressing little more than the general opinion among 
students of ant life regarding the powers of communication 
possessed by these insects, and the conclusions of so careful 
and experienced a myrmecologist and one withal so little to 
be suspected of a tendency to “humanizing the brute” 
are deserving of the most careful consideration. 
