2 Introduction. 



in the name of his colleagues i 1 "With reverential awe 

 does he (the naturalist) gaze at the microscopic speck 

 of nervous substance, which harbors the soul of the 

 ant with its industry, its instincts of architecture, 

 order, fidelity and courage." 



Surely, it was not without great reason that 

 scientific observers of recent times applied themselves 

 to the most careful and detailed examination of the 

 life of ants, especially since the publication of Pierre 

 Huber's classical "Recherches sur les Moeurs des 

 Fourmis indigenes'' (1810). Very many interesting 

 facts of great value for psychological research have 

 thus been furnished. However, dabblers in popular 

 science, who viewed things frorrj the standpoint of 

 "vulgar psychology," as Wundt termed it, misinter- 

 preted these facts in a very unscientific manner; for 

 they tried to draw conclusions from them which led 

 to the humanization of animals, and denied the 

 existence of any essential difference between the 

 psychic faculties of man and brute. It is not so very 

 long since Ludwig Buechner endeavored to pro- 

 mote these ideas in his "Geistesleben der Tiere" 

 (Berlin, 1876). As is generally the case with such 

 shallow elaborations, Buechner has found not a few 

 imitators and plagiarists. Therefore, it may not be 

 out of place to examine these deductions from the 

 standpoint of critical psychology. 



Sir John Lubbock, who devoted himself to the 

 study of ant life with the accuracy of a professional 

 scientist, and who carefully refrained from the 



*) "Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens." Lectures by E. 

 Dubois-Reymond, 1st issue (Leipzig, 1886), p. 127. 



