402 



NA TURE 



[September 23, 1922 



Manchester Ship Canal Oil-Dock should be hailed 

 rather as an engineering feat than an " oil victory " ; 

 without plenty of imported oil the dock ceases to exist 

 as such. The strike of oil in Papua is not surprising ; 

 both in British and former German territory oil 

 occurrences have long been known ; geological surveys 

 have been made and the oil sampled, but the technical 

 difficulties, an appalling climate and the native labour 

 troubles involved, have retarded development, even if 

 oil exists in commercial quantity — yet a moot point. 

 Then the Macedonian concessions are, geologically 

 speaking, even more doubtful than Papua as regards 

 oil potentialities : their securance may have been a 

 political or commercial coup, but as an incident in the 

 " British Oil Victory," it was neither heroic nor 

 decisive. 



We suggest to Mr. Brooks that in the general apprecia- 

 tion of the above facts lies the reason of apparent public 

 indifference to the erection of the Llandarcy refinery ; 

 the matter was neither ignored nor its significance 

 missed, as he complains ; it is simply that to the 

 average man this and kindred propositions appeal as 

 ordinary extensions to business, and where oil is con- 

 cerned especially, judgment by results rather than 

 hasty optimism at the beginning is the safer policy. 



H. B. M. 



The Ways of Insects. 



The Psychic Life of Insects. By Prof. E. L. Bouvier. 

 Translated by Dr. L. 0. Howard. Pp. xvii + 377. 

 (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 1922.) 85.6i.net. 



THIS is, we think, the most reasonable book that 

 has been written on insect behaviour as a 

 whole. It is scholarly and critical ; it avoids extremes ; 

 and it leaves open questions open. There is, as every 

 one recognises, an inclined plane of insect behaviour. 

 On the lowest level there are tropistic activities (the 

 translator's term " tropic " will not do), when the insect 

 makes towards or away from the light, against the 

 stream or the wind, towards or away from an odour, 

 and so on. In everyday life these tropisms count for 

 much. They are obligatory constitutional auto- 

 matisms ; they are induced by asymmetry of stimulus 

 which provokes asymmetry of muscular activity ; and 

 this automatically restores physiological equilibrium. 

 Interesting situations arise when one tropism (e.g. in 

 relation to light) influences or counteracts another (e.g. 

 in relation to gravity) ; and it is also noteworthy that 

 a tropism may change its character with the age or 

 physiological state of the organism. 



Then we have to recognise internal rhythms which 

 are enregistered in the insect's constitution and imply 

 NO. 2760, VOL. I 10] 



a certain organic memory. Very suggestive is Rou- 

 baud's case of the African " house- worms " (maggots 

 of Auchmeromyia luteola) which burrow in the earthen 

 floor of the hut during the day, but come up at night 

 to gorge themselves on the blood of the prostrate 

 sleepers. For Roubaud has proved that these larvae 

 experimentally treated can be induced to remain awake 

 during the day. The rrrythm is constitutional, but its 

 punctuation is environmental. 



Bouvier passes to the phenomena of " differential 

 sensitiveness " — a term which never strikes us as very 

 luminous. When a bed-bug, which naturally seeks 

 darkness, is suddenly illumined, its typical behaviour 

 is to turn through 180 degrees and proceed in the 

 opposite direction. Insects avoid situations or postures 

 which are contradictory to the exercise of their normal 

 tropisms ; but their behaviour is automatic, not 

 voluntary. Moreover, the reversal of the movement 

 in relation to a particular stimulus, say light, may be 

 induced by a sudden change in some other stimulation, 

 e.g. by a gust of wind or a warm breath. The familiar 

 phenomena of " catalepsy " or " feigning death " in 

 insects are regarded as exaggerations of " differential 

 sensitiveness," and the author is very sceptical as to 

 utilitarian interpretations. 



So far there is no appreciable psychical note. That 

 is not struck till we find the insect selecting one reaction 

 rather than another, profiting by experience in a simple 

 way, and showing individual as contrasted with organic 

 memory. Some very interesting examples are given 

 of an individual change of habit in novel circumstances. 

 The intelligent adjustment of habits has played an 

 important part in the evolution of instinctive behaviour, 

 for insects have " the power very quickly to transform 

 acts which are intelligent at first into automatic acts." 



Bouvier's position in regard to instinctive behaviour 

 is eclectic. There is no special faculty of " instinct," 

 and the various forms of instinctive behaviour are not 

 all on the same level nor of the same origin ; some 

 may have arisen as germinal mutations (which will be 

 afterwards tested in everyday life), while others may 

 have arisen in the course of intelligent apprenticeship. 

 " In an intelligent way, new habits are established, 

 which by heredity are added to the patrimony of 

 instinct, modifying it and forming one of the essential 

 elements of its evolution." " It is probable that all 

 the higher instincts had originally this intellectual 

 quality." And yet Bouvier agrees with Bergson that 

 instinctive behaviour is on a different tack from 

 intelligent behaviour ; they help one another ; they 

 are both " opposites and complements." 



It is likely enough that Bouvier is right in believing 

 that instinctive behaviour is manifold, and that it may 

 be established as an innate capacity in more than one 



