Difficulties and Methods 9 



dead ant, and so on, until the line was extended to about forty 

 pairs, and the procession now moved slowly onward, followed 

 by an irregular body of about two hundred ants. Occa- 

 sionally the two laden ants stopped, and laying down the dead 

 ant, it was taken up by the two walking unburdened behind 

 them, and thus, by occasionally relieving each other, they 

 arrived at a sandy spot near the sea." A separate grave was 

 then dug for each dead ant. "Some six or seven of the ants 

 had attempted to run off without performing their share of 

 the task of digging; these were caught and brought back, 

 when they were at once attacked by the body of ants and 

 killed upon the spot. A single grave was quickly dug and 

 they were all dropped into it." No funeral procession for 

 them ! Of this story Romanes says, "The observation seems 

 to have been one about which there could scarcely have been 

 a mistake " (364, p. 91). One is inclined to think it just 

 possible that there was. 



3. Methods of Obtaining Facts : The Method of Experiment 



Diametrically opposed to the Method of Anecdote and its 

 unscientific character is the Method of Experiment. An 

 experiment, properly conducted, always implies that the 

 conditions are controlled, or at least known; whereas igno- 

 rance of the conditions is, as we have seen, a common feature 

 of anecdote. The experimenter is impartial ; he has no de- 

 sire to bring about any particular result. The teller of an 

 anecdote wishes to prove animal intelligence. The experi- 

 menter is willing to report the facts precisely as he observes 

 them, and is in no haste to make them prove anything. 

 The conduct of an experiment upon an animal will, of course, 

 vary according to the problem to be solved. If the object is 

 to test some innate reaction on the animal's part, such as its 

 ordinary responses to stimulation or its instincts, one need 



