THE PEEFECT SOCIALISM 89 



industries. Methods of communication approaching to 

 language exist among social insects, but what they say 

 or exactly how they say is as yet largely a mystery to 

 us. They can inform each other of the discovery of 

 food, as is shown by many experiments. Sentinels are 

 enabled by some means to arouse and alarm a whole 

 colony with great celerity. But perhaps nothing is so 

 wonderful about them as their ability to recognize 

 members of their own commonwealth. This is a power 

 beyond our ken, and cannot be compared with our rec- 

 ognition of individuals. Lubbock has shown that ants 

 of the same nest recognize each other after being sepa- 

 rated for nearly two years ; also that when pupae are 

 taken from a nest and matured in a strange colony 

 they were still recognized when they were returned to 

 their own people. He also divided an ants' nest before 

 the eggs were laid, and let each half develop its own 

 young. Then he brought the two halves together 

 again, and young and old alike recognized each other 

 as kindred. Lubbock also showed that ants were 

 able to distinguish their own intoxicated friends from 

 strangers likewise intoxicated. In this experiment the 

 ants seemed greatly disturbed by the disgraceful condi- 

 tion of their fellows, but they carried them into the 

 nest for further care, while they summarily dumped the 

 drunken strangers into the moat. 



