April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
101 
riecl in. A dragon-fly, which, after several attempts, proved too 
heavy for them, was cut in two by a few strokes of the jaws and 
the hinder part of the abdomen carried off.'’ 
MENTAL POWERS. 
In experimenting on the mental powers of wasps our method 
was of necessity entirely ejective, and we endeavored to keep 
constantly before our minds the limitations imposed by the pro¬ 
found differences between the human and the wasp intellect. 
Still, as Romanes says,* “ Taking it for granted that the ex¬ 
ternal indications of mental processes which we observe in ani¬ 
mals are trustworthy, so that we are justified in inferring partic¬ 
ular mental states from particular bodily actions, it follows that 
in consistency we must everywhere apply the same criteria. 
“For instance if we find a dog or a monkey exhibiting marked 
expressions of affection, sympathy, jealousy, rage, etc., few per¬ 
sons are skeptical enough to doubt that the complete analogy 
which these expressions afford with those which are manifested 
by man sufficiently prove the existence of mental states analagous 
to those in man of which these expressions are the outward and 
visible signs. But when we find an ant or a bee apparently ex¬ 
hibiting by its actions these same emotions, few persons are suffi¬ 
ciently non*scepticai not to doubt whether the outward and 
visible signs are here trustworthy as evidence of analogous or 
corresponding inward and mental states. The whole organ¬ 
ization of such a creature is so different from that of a man 
that it becomes questionable how far analogy drawn from the 
activities of the insect is a safe guide to the inferring of mental 
states—particularly in view of the fact that in many respects, 
such as in the great preponderance of 'instinct' over ‘reason’ the 
psychology of an insect is demonstrably a widely different thing 
from that of a man. Now it is, of course, perfectly true that the 
less the resemblance the less is the value of any analogy built 
*Animal Intelligence, p. 8. This work, and the work on “ Mental Evolution in Ani¬ 
mals,” by the stole author seem to us by far the most able contributionsi toi comparative 
psychology thSfar published. The author is what so few writers upon this subject 
have been, a profound psychologist. 
