40 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



highest division or class of the Annulosa, namely the 

 Insecta, is by its whole organisation raised far above the 

 lower classes of the Vertebrata, such as Pisces and Amphibia, 

 and by its mental capacity mounts as far as Aves, and as 

 the higher or highest Mammalia. Leuret, the distinguished 

 anatomist and naturalist, says of the ants, that they stand 

 highest among the Invertebrata, and that even among the 

 Vertebrata, excluding apes and elephants, there is none to 

 place above them. Their history, he says, is that of men. 

 They have a distinct language, they build dwellings with 

 windows, saloons, ante-rooms, partition-walls, pillars, beams, 

 etc. They give battle, carry on sieges, make prisoners and 

 slaves. They keep milch-cows, and show the greatest care 

 for their children. If we were no larger than ants or bees, 

 and they were as large as we are, they would perhaps regard 

 us as small, certainly very rational animals, but yet of less 

 importance than themselves. 



Leuret's colleague and countryman, Professor Chr. 

 Lespes, of Marseilles, who has also thoroughly observed 

 the habits of ants, declares that they " deserve our thorough 

 sympathy," and recommends the study of them as " one of 

 the most attractive imaginable." 



Professor A. Fee (" Etudes Philosophiques sur 1'Instinct 

 et ITntelligence des Animaux," 1853) places the Insecta 

 (and therein the ants in the first place) in the highest grade 

 as to instinct, and in the third as to reason, of the whole 

 animal scale. 



No one has a better right to decide on the general place 

 of ants in nature and in the scale of existence, than 

 Dr. Augustus Forel, who, by his excellent work on ants of 

 Switzerland (1874) has trodden worthily in the footsteps of 

 his famous predecessor and countryman Peter Huber, who 

 first described the habits and noteworthy customs of the 

 ants of his own country in the year 1810,* and from whom 

 all later writers have borrowed more or less. The French 

 Blanchard, in his great book on the relationships, habits, and 

 instincts of insects (1868) speaks of Huber's work as a 

 " revelation." " It will ever remain as a monument of 

 patience and acuteness; his account of the facts bears 



* " Pierre Huber ; Recherches sur lea Mocurs des Fourmis Indigenes." 

 Paris et Geneve, 1810. 



