INTELLECT AND INSTINCT IN BEES. 235 



animals may be immortal, for aught we know ; or 

 man may, according to current opinion, stand alone 

 in this respect ; but the yea or nay of the question 

 need not rest upon the foundation of the gift of 

 intellect. We know, indeed, so little of the actual 

 connection between mind and body, the senses and 

 the intellect, that it becomes quite unsafe to base 

 upon our knowledge any theories as to the conscious 

 possession of power when the body ceases to live. 

 The discussion of this subject must rest on other 

 and higher grounds altogether, and so will lie outside 

 the limits of our work. But we may well inquire 

 how far true intellectual processes go on in bees. 

 And the best way to do this will be to take some 

 of the strictly intellectual faculties, and see whether 

 they really exist among these insects. 



Firstly, with regard to memory. Without entering 

 upon theories as to the simple or complex nature of 

 the means by which we recall feelings, events, sen- 

 sations, or ideas, we may take it for granted that 

 memory is a sign and an attribute of considerable 

 mental endowment. Now that bees distinctly remem- 

 ber, there can be not the slightest doubt. What- 

 ever may be our opinion as to the faculty by which 

 they find their way back to their hives from long 

 distances, there is clear evidence of their recollecting 

 particular places, in the circumstance that, for a day 

 or two after the securing of a swarm, certain bees 

 will hover round the spot from which the hiving 

 took place. Again, it is possible to train these in- 

 sects to come day after day to a particular place, 

 by supplying them with food under conditions in 

 which their senses of sight and smell would not 



