The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-04-12

one entire lobe, and he does not mind
it much; there is probably unusual
activity in the half remaining. If
more than half of both lobes (from the
'front.' is removed, the brain even
grows Il little again, and the animal
performs his ordinary functions. If
all the brain is taken, the dog lives
but he is little better than an idiot;
his food must he put into his mouth,
he can direct his steps with no GER
tainty, and his eyes see without recog-
milton. This sort of vivisection Of
animals has been, as you know, made
with reference to ascertaining whether
the brain is the seat, or should say
the only seat, of intelligent motion. A
frogs brain was removed; its side was
then tickled with a straw, and the an
imal lifted up his hind leg to scratch
the place assailed. I asked the pro-
fessor if he considered this proof
that the brain was not the primal seat
of the nerve of motion. He said, no,
he thought that the motion of the leg
against the body was the result Of
habit in that case.
Most of these delicate preparations
in this museum have been made by
DR.. Auguste Forrel, a young Swiss
naturalist, the assistant, as said, in
this hospital, and a genius of the first
order. His speciality, and the work
which has given him European
reputation, is the study of ants. I
believe that he has carried his obser-
vations farther than any of his prede-
cessors. I have before me a large
quarto volume of over 400 pages,
called Isles Fourmis de Ia Suisse. it is
a complete study Of the anatomy, phys
iology, architecture, habits, and man.
ners of the ants of Switzerland. You
can badly conceive the long and pa
tient observation which has given him
such intimate knowledge of this most
interesting animal. He has come to
know ants personally and individually;
has not only carefully, day after day
and week after week, observed them
in the open air, but has had colonies
and families under close and long study
at home.
Young Forrel's collection and muse
UNI is in Geneva, and at hissOwn home,
where his experiments are still in
progress, and he has but little to show
here. He had, however, in walls,
many brains of ants, both big and little.
These brains he hardens and submits
to the same slicing process described
above. The dissection of a large ant
is a delicate operation, but when the
ant is as small as some of these he has
here, the brain of which needs to be
under a microscope to be seen per-
fectly, the delicacy of manipulation
necessary may be imagined.
He has one experiment now in pro-
gress, which all naturalist's will watch
with great interest. He has in his
room, in proper earth, a colony Of fe-
male ants there is not male among
them. They are now hybernating. In
the spring they will lay their eggs.
He is trying the experiment if these
eggs will produce ants without the
presence Of the males. His observa-
lions hitherto lead him to expect that
they will.
The ant, you know. is a very Won
derful animal, and has capacities which
seem to be wanting in animals larger
and usually credited with more intelli-
gence. They exist in societies, if not
in organizations they are architects,
they plan and carry out expeditions of
plumber or of war, they have slaves,
| they seem to have ION occasion) recog-
nized leaders, and they act sometimes
very much as a community of men.
The ants have three sexes. male, fe-
male, and neuter, which / think are
named AmaZons. The slaves of an ant
hill are compelled to do the work; it
is, if l understand it, the Amazons
! MOSTLY who form tho armv
| The slaves are procured in the good
old-fashioned way, by war. It seems
to be the practice, when slaves are
needed, for the hill to send out scouts
to look for weaker colony. Four
ants have been seen to go on such an
expedition. On their return they
communicate the result to their fell
lows. The communication between
them seems to be by the means of
| their antennB. Two ants touched ant
ennB and understood each other. The
ant has poor or defective sight, and
his feelers are his means Of inter-
course and knowledge; he feels his
way over the ground by his antennD,
| by them he knows his friends from
his enemies; if they are pulled out he
is nearly as helpless as blind man,
and cannot tell friends from foes.
They are his weapons of war as we'll.
When an attack on another COLONY is
determined upon, the army moves out
of the hill, say from two hundred to
seven hundred strong. The main
body does not form in rank or order.
but some of the leaders keep rank,
four abreast. One thing is singular,
they never go on such an expedition
till afternoon. AS long as they are