82 THE HUMANIZING OP THE BRUTE. 



the number of cocoons captured will be more consid- 

 erable. No blood is shed without purpose. More- 

 over, the Polyergus seem to distinguish very well be- 

 tween the useful cocoons of workers and the useless 

 and harmful ones of the females and males. Finally, 

 the ants apparently succeed in determining their 

 slaves to desist from the care of the preservation 

 of their own species, and to devote all their strength, 

 yea, even their very life, for the benefit of the colony 

 and the progeny of their ravishers. 



These few facts, indeed, seem to throw a brilliant 

 light upon the psychic faculties of the ants; and though 

 some of them may be explained by very simple proc- 

 esses, there are scarcely any others in the life-history 

 of animals which present to us a more intellectual 

 appearance. The question now arises: Must these 

 facts in reality be attributed to true intelligence; do 

 they really involve true consciousness of finality? 

 A short consideration of the dark side in the life-his- 

 tory of these very same ants will convince us that this 

 question cannot be answered in the affirmative with- 

 out evident contradiction. 



As will be known to many of our readers, the 

 mandibles of the Amazons are of a peculiar construc- 

 tion. They are not like those of other ants adapted 

 for many functions necessary to sustain the life of the 

 individuals and commonly exercised by those organs 

 (Plate III., Figs. 2 and 3). Hence the Amazons 

 essentially depend on the assistance of their help- 

 mates in many of their actions. This essential depen- 

 dence goes so far that throughout life the Polyergus 

 are even nourishedby their slaves. This fact is 



