THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 311 



The followers of the agricultural craft, however, are a gentler 

 folk on whose nature is presently stamped the sign manual of kir.- 

 ship with simple things beyond the learning of the schools — fellow- 

 ship with b:rds that sing at their toil ; with flowers that bloom, give 

 forth fragrance and nectar without visible sign of acquisitiveness, 

 and bees that hum contented songs of Arcady while they distil lim- 

 pid nectar into ambrosial sweets. From such-like people may wc 

 not expect better things? 



This article may in due course fall under the observation of 

 some thousands of this craft, numbering the most intelligent and 

 observing of men and women, to the majority of whom, possibly, 

 the suggestion of a reasoning faculty in the bee will come as a stroke 

 of unparalleled heterodoxy, so universal is the generally accepted 

 theory of instinct. Multitudes of thoughtful minds, perfectly will- 

 ing to admit the exercise of reason in the higher orders of domestic 

 animals, will instinctively question the possibility of such powers in 

 the tiny brain of an insect. 



Psychology is a science in its formative stages. All psychology, 

 even that dealing with human phenomena, is comparative in its 

 nature, and the patient investigators in this relatively new field find 

 their richest material in the study of the lower orders of life. The 

 'terminology is by no means exact or uniform and conclusions are 

 varied, as might be expected in a new and world-wide field of re- 

 search, but we are at least arriving at primary definitions which 

 seem fairly conclusive. 



Practically the entire working force of the new science of 

 psychology is devoting its energies to investigation of the problem 

 of mental action (or that which, for want of definition, takes its 

 place) in the lower orders of life, covering the entire field of bio- 

 logical research from rotifers and amoeba to domestic animals asso- 

 ciated with the daily life of man. It is constantly demonstrated in 

 these researches that original reaction to certain applied stimuli give 

 evidence of primary forms of mental activity not yet fixed into reflex 

 forms which afford much food for thought. There is abundant rea- 

 son why those who have exceptional opportunity for observation of 

 that most remarkable of insects, the honey-bee, should give due con- 

 sideration to the psychological phases of the interesting phenomena 

 of bee-life, many of which are entirely unexplainable on purely phys- 

 ical grounds. This is of particular interest because of the more in- 

 timate knowledge of the bee which may thereby be derived and our 

 ability to turn its labors to material profit be increased proportion- 

 ately with our understanding. 



One can almost hear the protest of the materialistic critic who 

 says "it is more important that the bee-keeper should reason, than 

 the bee," and it would not be difficult to agree with him. but if the 



