170 MEETINGS. 



Language, in the sense here employed, may be held to 

 mean any manner of expressing thought, and therefore lan- 

 guage implied mind. Wherever wo find animal life we find 

 inseparably connected with it certain phenomena which 

 indicate the existence of mind — very dim, very obscure, it 

 may be even inappreciable to our perception — but, neverthe- 

 less, existent. If we make a scale of the animal kingdom 

 based on its physical organisation, and also another scale of 

 the animal kingdom based on its psychological powers, we 

 shall find the two scales extremely divergent. In the one, 

 immediately below man, Ave have the anthropoid apes, but in 

 the other we must make a tremendous downward leap, and 

 passing by the whole of the vertebrates as well as the higher 

 Invertebrata, we must, in order to find the closest approach 

 to man, go to the ant. This at least is the opinion ot 

 Lubbock, who probably knows more about the habits and 

 faculties of these insects than any man living. He expressly 

 declares his opinion that ants " have a fair claim to rank next 

 to man in the scale of intelligence." Darwin said " the brain 

 of an ant is one of the most marvellous atoms of matter in 

 the world, perhaps more so than the brain of a man," and it 

 is well known that an ant's brain is larger and more complex 

 than that of any other insect. After some further remarks 

 to render the subject clear, the lecturer proceeded to give a 

 digest of a number of experiments made by Lubbock and 

 conducted with extreme care, all of which tended to demon- 

 strate beyond question that ants are capable of communicating 

 with and conveying information to each other. Then came 

 the difficult question, how they do so? Through what 

 channel do the thoughts of one ant pass into the brain of 

 another ? At present it was a matter of conjecture and it 

 seemed as if the problem could never be solved by practical 

 test, but Mr. Marquand's opinion was that the antennae were 

 the organs of communication. The precise function of the 

 antennae we do not know, and probably never shall, for Mr. 

 Marquand held them to be the organs of a sense of which we 

 have no analogue in the human race, and of which we 

 can form no conception whatever. Unfortunately conclusive 

 experiments in this direction are impossible because the 

 amputation of the antennae is instantaneously followed by an 

 extraordinary change in the living insect; it becomes para- 

 lysed, ceases to eat or engage in any kind of labour, can no 

 longer find its way or recognise its companions, it remains 

 quiescent and almost motionless, and so lingers on until death 

 intervenes. 



