Januaev 25, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



99 



key to many instincts is found in the con- 

 ception tliat they are inherited habits, 

 themselves the originally conscious reac- 

 tions of the individual to its surroundings ; 

 and this conception has never been seriously 

 attacked from tlie front in open field. Yet 

 Dai-win and all his followers have regarded 

 the habits and instincts of social insects as 

 mainly if not wholly evolved by casual vari- 

 ations and natural selection. For the ori- 

 gin of the instincts and habits of these 

 creatures cannot ol)viously be explained on 

 Lamarck's principle, since they are for the 

 most part evinced by the workei-S and sol- 

 diers, who are neutei-s ; and such, of coui-se, 

 cannot transmit their instincts by blood to 

 their followers, who are only collaterals and 

 outside the direct line. Here and there, in- 

 deed, these neuters may lay eggs, unfertil- 

 ized but not infertile, since in the bees thej' 

 produce drones and in some ants also males ; 

 but we have no evidence that this occurrence 

 is fi-equent or regular enough really to in- 

 lluence the race. However, there are two 

 matters, the so-called instincts of neuters 

 generally, and those of slave-makers in par- 

 ticular, that may be dealt with from a 

 point of view which will show that an ex- 

 planation is available that makes no exces- 

 sive denuind on Lamai'ckians. 



It is a truism to say that one of the most 

 potent iactoi-s in education is the imitation 

 of one's peers. As a teacher of experience, 

 I know well how thi' presence of a few bright 

 and handy students eases my annual task 

 of breaking in a class of book-taught lads 

 to a study requiring handiwork and obser- 

 vati(m. The nearer akin the model, the 

 more powtTful is his example. Thus, the 

 trained elephant is an almost necessary aid 

 to the tamer of wild elephants ; no l)ird-or- 

 gan can do as well as a good songster ; and 

 if we wish to train a daw, magpie or star- 

 ling to speak, its Itest teacher is a loquaci- 

 ous parrot. 



Animals may readily thus acquire /i«6/7'< 



which, if we did not know their origin, we 

 might well mistake for imtinctt. Thus a dog 

 reared by a she-cat has acquired the habit 

 of sitting up on his tail, licking his paw.s and 

 washing Ins face — watching a mouse-liole 

 for hours together ; ' and liad in short all the 

 ways and manners and disposition of liis wet 

 nurse.'* So that in considering the behavior 

 of any species we have to be cautious and 

 bear ever in mind that manifestations whicli 

 at first sight seem unetpiivocal instinct may 

 be really habit, and habit only. 



Xow every neuter insect is born from the 

 pupa (as it was born from the egg) into a 

 community of busy workere of its own kind, 

 practising the art that shef will have to 

 practise in turn. If then her mental pow- 

 ere and emotional development are up to 

 the average of the race there can be no dif- 

 ficult}- in her qualifying for the place she 

 will take in the nest. Again we must re- 

 member that this neuter insect hatches from 

 the egg into a helpless larva, to be fed and 

 tended with most devoted care by the adult 

 sister workers until it passes into the chrys- 

 alis or i>upa stage, where il sleeps out the 

 transformations that make it an adult. We 

 know well that neuter insects show every 

 sign of varied emotion; everyone can tell 

 the difference of demeanor between the busy 

 bee and the angry one; and observers have 

 shown us ample evidence of many other 

 emotions. If then memory of the earlier 

 larval state survives the pupa trancej our 



*Ree Koinanes, op. cit., p. 226. 



t Tlie .>io-fallc(l neuter is always an imperfect female. 



t Lubbock liiis .shown that ants will tend any young 

 whatever of their own species even if born in other 

 nest.s; liut none the less they do reject them as 

 strangers after they have ])a.s,se<l tlirouf;h pniiadom 

 into the adult state, while they welcome Isu'k the 

 offspring of their own nest that liave been fosteretl by 

 strangers. Tlie converse- experiments have not been 

 tried, to ascertiiin whether the new-born adults that 

 have been nursed outside their own nest show any 

 memory of or preference for their own folk or their 

 fosterers respectively. (See Lubl)ock, '.\nts, Bee» 

 and Wa.si)s. ' 1 



