Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom. 171 



charges, since under ordinary circumstances the eggs 

 are laid only by the impregnated females. Their 

 affection, therefore, as sisters or aunts is the psychic 

 impulse of their nursing instinct. According to 

 modern animal psychology, which ascribes to animals 

 besides their instinct at least a modicum of genuine 

 intelligence, it cannot be doubted, that the worker- 

 ants fulfill their duties as sisters or aunts "very know- 

 ingly," that they are aware of the importance of the 

 work allotted to them in their social economy, and 

 that they apply themselves to nursing the offspring 

 of another with the consciousness of doing their duty. 

 But to what degree will the love of the workers for 

 the young be advanced, if to their affection as sister 

 or aunt there is added "motherly love" in the full 

 sense of the term ? Must we not expect that the love 

 of the workers for their own young should attain to 

 an exalted, an unutterable degree of tenderness ? For, 

 in the whole creation no love is stronger than that of 

 a mother. 



Indeed, our expectations would be justified, if ants 

 were endowed with intelligence and self-consciousness. 

 But what do we find in reality? The workers gen- 

 erally devour most of the eggs, which they have laid 

 themselves. 1 Is this the climax of noble, self-sacri- 

 ficing motherly love? Or shall we call these workers 

 abominable cannibals regardless of duty? The psy- 

 chology of Brehm and others of that ilk may decide 

 this question. In our opinion, however, such facts 

 ought to lead reasonable people to perceive the obvious 

 contradictions, in which all the talk about "animal 



See my observations in "Biolog. Centralbl.," XT, 1891, p. 21 ff. 



