Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom. 153 



even surpass the females proper in perfection of 

 instincts and brain development.^ Those females, 

 which are destined for generation, are provided by 

 their organic development with perfect ovaries, whilst 

 their brain and instincts are far less perfect. The 

 workers, on the other hand, which on account of their 

 small ovaries may be called undeveloped females, are 

 compensated by a more perfect development of the 

 brain and the instinctive endowments. Hence, the 

 astonishing prudence displayed by the worker ants 

 and their consequent social leadership are merely a 

 function of their organic development. This is the 

 so-called ^'intelligence" and ''intellectual life" of ants, 

 viewed in the light of genuine science ! 



We have thus far been considering the breeding 

 instincts of ants from their organic side ; let us, in 

 the subsequent discussion, turn our attention to their 

 psychic aspect. 



2. Care of the Young among Ants. 



The hereditary disposition of the sensitive cogni- 

 tion and appetite of animals, called instinct, has in the 

 case of ants a wide range and great variety of actions, 

 and especially so with regard to the breeding instincts, 

 wherein ants surpass even the highest mammals. The 

 instinctive disposition is no mechanical automatism, 



^) As to the peduncles of the ant brain, the significance of which 

 with regard to psychic life we have already pointed out in a former 

 essay, Forel says: Les corps pedoncules sont enormes chez les ouvrieres 

 du genre Formica, qui renferme les fourmis les plus intelligentes; et, 

 chose tre3 rttnarquable, ils sont plus petits chez les femelles et 

 beaucoup plus petits chez les males du meme genre ("Fourmis de la 

 Suisse," p. 123). My own observations confirm Forel's statements; see 

 "Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom," p, 130 ff. 



