IN THE ITNVERTEBEATA. 63 



mental qualities that have just been described as character- 

 istic of various subkingdoms, classes, and orders genera 

 and species of the Invertebrata, or lowest half of the animal 

 kingdom, it will be found that we have already before us 

 all the elements or essentials of mind as it occurs in man. 

 Though not developed in equal degree, we have neverthe- 

 less the higher, as well as the lower, constituents of mind- 

 reason, intelligence, thought, as well as mere sensation, 

 instinct, and reflex action. And, moreover, it is evident that 

 intelligence begins at the very base of the zoological scale. 



Such a survey and analysis will show us that the Inverte- 

 brata possess and display the following attributes of mind as 

 it occurs in man : 



1. General intelligence. In the ant especially it has been 

 noticed and commented on by countless writers of the most 

 diverse character, from the days of Solomon downward. 

 Cicero very properly endowed the ant with mind or reason, 

 including memory ; and the most modern and most com- 

 petent authors, such as Houzeau and Belt, do the same. So 

 high is their intelligence that ants have been by many 

 authors regarded as, in many respects or senses, prototypes 

 of man (Darwin). Their social or political organisations 

 represent semicivilised societies of man, according to 

 Houzeau, who indeed places the ant nearest to man in 

 regard to its social condition ; and Belt, who was struck 

 with the intelligence displayed by the foraging ants of 

 Nicaragua, remarks that ' perhaps, if we could learn their 

 wonderful language, we should find that, even in their 

 mental condition, they also rank next to humanity ' a 

 striking admission from an otherwise out-and-out Dar- 

 winian. Houzeau seems to me quite justified in saying that 

 there are in certain insects, such as the ant, intellectual 

 processes comparable in kind to those of man. The under- 

 mining by beetles of a stick with a spitted toad stuck upon 

 its apex, in order that, by the fall of the top-heavy stick, 

 they might reach their coveted food, involves the possession 

 of a high degree of intelligence or reason (Gleditsch, Kirby 

 and Spence). Professor Kollmann credits the octopus with a 

 high degree of intelligence. 



