538 



NA TURE 



[Oct. 



will ; and leave biology as it is for any who may wish to take 

 up that subject. At present the effect can only be to quash the 

 teaching entirely beyond its first and most elementary stage. 



There are not wanting signs elsewhere of the evil effects of 

 the younger school of botanists not recognising the importance 

 of first training students in a thorough course of practical and 

 systematic botany before proceeding to laboratory work. In an 

 examination lately held for a post at Kew, I am informed that 

 two gentlemen who had been trained at Cambridge competed 

 with a gardener for the post. The gardener secured it. Verb. 

 sap. George Henslow 



Animal Intelligence 



Having frequently observed in your columns accounts of 

 remarkable instances of reasoning power in animals, I am 

 tempted to send you the following notes, which may perhaps be 

 not without interest to the readers of Nature. 



A young canary belonging to our family is in the habit of 

 receiving small pieces of biscuit, cake, or such like from the tea- 

 table. The hardness of the biscuit has ever been a source of 

 great annoyance to Dicky. One day, however, after an expectant 

 and close examination of the tea-table, he was offered a piece of 

 hard biscuit. Without making the least attempt to break it, he 

 lifted it from the floor of his cage, and taking it to his water- 

 trough, gently dropped it in, following up the action by patiently 

 stirring it round and round with his beak, until it was in a 

 condition to be eaten. He then carefully removed it and 

 devoured it without any trouble. He now puts every hard 

 substance which he deems eatable into the water. He en- 

 deavoured to soften sweets in the same way, but finding that the 

 sweet became gradually smaller and smaller, he hastily abs- 

 tracted it, aid has never since put anything of that nature into 

 the water. 



An equally interesting case of reasoning power was lately 

 exhibited by our cat. Pussy had lately become the mother of a 

 family of kittens, and was naturally indisposed after the occur- 

 rence. She wandered about through the house in a strange 

 manner, as if seeking for something, always, however, keeping 

 within near range of the coal bunkers when they were likely to 

 be required. With a view to finding out what she wanted, the 

 bunkers were left open. The cat immediately entered, and 

 commenced searching diligently among the coals, until she 

 found a piece covered with pyrites. This she proceeded to Ik'. 

 vigorously, returning to the bunker and repeating the operation 

 at regular intervals. On ground sulphur being offered her, she 

 at once fors ok the pyrites for that, and ere long, by use of that 

 medicine, regained her usual health. 



R. J. Harvey Gibson 



Zoological Laboratory, University College, Liverpool, 

 September 29 



In the notes on Australian ants forwarded by me by the last 

 mail I forget whether any mention was made respecting an idea 

 that has struck me several times, as to the method in which the 

 antenna; are employed by ants as a means of communicating 

 with each other. That ants utter no audible sound is pretty 

 plainly proved by experiments made with the microphone. It 

 is said that the Ambillidae give a kind of sharp cry when cap- 

 tured, but the statement requires to be verified. Ordinary ants 

 may be generally spoken of as destitute of any means whereby 

 to utter articulate speech. Beyond the fact that they do not 

 appear to be able to speak, so as to be heard by human 

 ears, the tests resorted to by Sir John Lubbock would go to 

 show that it is extremely doubtful whether ants possess the 

 sense of hearing at all. This, however, does not preclude the 

 possibility, or even the probability, of their being in full power 

 of a means by which they are able to converse. It will be 

 remembered that the antenna.- are divided into two separate 

 portions, the scape and the flabellum. The latter is subdivided 

 into about ten separate segments. Now in this arrangement, 

 by adopting a preconcerted system of signals, all the words of 

 an English dictionary might be expressed. 



Let us say that A meets B, and, according to the vocabulary 

 of Formicaria, that a touch with the tip of the antenna of A 

 on the terminal segment of the antenna of B signifies any par- 

 ticular word. A similar touch made on the second segment of the 

 antenna of B indicates another word, and so on. Here there 

 s a means of expressing at least ten different words by taking 

 rrom the point of the flabellum to its base. If the second 



point of the flabellum of A is employed as a touching organ, 

 the number of signs that might be conveyed from the one ant 

 to the other would be twenty. If all the segments were thus 

 utilised, a hundred different signs might be interchanged. This 

 is for one antenna only. By utilising the pair this number would 

 be doubled, and by multiplying the number of touches, to ex- 

 press words or plurals of words, also, and by crossing the 

 antennae so that the right antenna of A touched the left of B, 

 and vice versa, all clearly distinct signals, the vocabulary of these 

 little people would be extended almost ad infinitum. Say that 

 the one touch of a segment of the flabellum meant an ant, two 

 touches a pair of ants, and three a multitude ; here there exists 

 a means by which complicated ideas might be communicated in 

 a manner somewhat similar to that adopted by the Chinese, by 

 whom a particular sign means a woman, two mischief, and three 

 marital unfaithfulness ; or, as in the language of the Australian 

 natives, who employ the term " Yarra " as signifying " flowing," 

 and " Yarra- Yarra " as " ever-flowing." All this would be pan- 

 tomime, of course ; but those who have witnessed a public 

 exhibition of the skill of well-taught deaf-mutes, are aware of 

 the amount of information that can be imparted by the simple 

 use of the ten digits, just half the number of separate conversa- 

 tional organs at the disposal of ants. Nor do persons and 

 nations, well able to speak audibly, fail to avail themselves of 

 the mi kind of speech. A Chinaman utters a certain word, 

 but it may mean half a dozen different things, as he moves his 

 fingers to the right or to the left, up or down, or describes 

 some imaginary diagrams in the air. 



The above views may seem altogether visionary at first sight, 

 but we have been told so many remarkable stories relative to the 

 instincts displayed by the singularly intelligent creatures under 

 consideration, that no persevering student of their habits will 

 be inclined to say that the use by them of some such code of 

 signals is altogether beyond the range of possibility, even of 

 probability. 



It might be as well if naturalists, when watching the meeting 

 of ants, would notice carefully whether the observed touches 

 vary in any particular, and whether any noticeable results fol- 

 lowed after, and appeared to be connected with, the variations. 

 Thomas Harrison 



244, Victoria Parade, Fast Melbourne, Victoria, 

 July 16 



Meteors 



I H tvi. to record a brilliant series of meteors seen last night 

 (Sunday, July 20) by myself and others. I will describe that 

 seen by myself, as, amid the many splendid meteors I have 

 observed during my sixty years of life, I have never seen one 

 more magnificent. I was walking up and down my "quarter- 

 deck," the carriage-drive in front of my house, which In due 

 north and south, admiring the glorious tints of the dying day, 

 for we have been having, on a reduced scale, the grand sunsets 

 about which I have already written. I was looking due north, 

 and saw a huge fireball suddenly appear about halfway between 

 the- horizon and the zenith. It moved slowly and horizontally, 

 leaving a broad trail of red light behind it, as well defined as 

 that emitted by a rocket. The meteor itself was about half 

 the size of a full moon, white, and of the mist intense and 

 dazzling brilliancy. It travelled so slowly that I had time to 

 call out, several times, to my wife, "Look at that glorious 

 meteor," and she had time to turn round and see it. At about 

 north-north-west it suddenly broke up into six, if not seven 

 pieces, but at this moment its light was so intense that I could 

 not be quite certain ; six, however, I counted distinctly. They 

 did not fall, but trailed on in a line after the larger mass, 

 which did not seem diminished by the rupture, and finally, at 

 north-west, they all disappeared. On taking out my « ttch I 

 found it was just two minutes past six, and as we are a month 

 [last our shortest day, you can fancy there was plenty of day- 

 light left to dim its splendour. But it was a magnificent sight, 

 and its intense brilliancy surpassed anything I have seen before. 



At 6.30 two friends walked up to dinner. I asked if they had 

 seen the meteor. They said, "Yes, how splendid it was ! I 

 asked, "Could you count the number of pieces into which it 

 broke?" They looked at each other in amazement. " It did 

 not bieak!" " In what direction did it pass?" was my next 

 question. "From west to east," said one ol them; " if you 

 were standing here you could not have seen it ; it was low- 

 down on the southern horizon, behind your house." I then 



