Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1897-09-30
INTELLECT OF THE INSECT.
Mosquitoes and Other Small Crea-
lures May Have Reason.

bugs this summer be sure to preserve
their brains; the Smithsonian institute
wants them.
Absurd notion, you say? Not a bit of
it. A mosquito has a brain just as
you have. There is a specimen in the
national museum-that is to say, a
model of a Jersey mosquitoes thinking
machine, magnified about 10000 times
A cockroach's brain, an ants brain,
a bedbug's brain, etc., will be added to
the collection.
The collection referred to has been
newly acquired by the Smithsonian in
stitute for the national museum. 1t is
an assemblage of models of brains
of all sorts of animals. Many of them
are greatly magnified, so as to afford
opportunity for imperative study.
For just at present an immense
amount of interest is being manifested
in the study of mind and the phe-
nomena exhibited by the mind appar-
atus. Not only are men of distinction
contributing their brains to science
Prof. Cope, the great paleontologist,
who died the other day. actually
throwing in his skeleton-but demands
are being made for the brains of crea-
lures low down in the scale of men
tai development for the purposes of
investigation.
1t is only within comparatively
short time that the existence of an Or
nnY.IHy Il h,.1i in thn
lowest order of animals has been rec
ogniZed. OF course very far down in
the scale of creation one finds hardly
more than system of nerves and
ganglia, with nothing specially recog-
! nizable as representing brain. But
even clam may be said to have a
sort OF brain, though it is extremely
small; it can be dissected and proper
ly Identified as the thinking center or
principle ganglion of the creature.
This principal nerve bunch or gan
glion has direct control over the So
called foot" of the clam. When it
comes to the higher mollusks, such as
the squid, NAUTILUS, argonaut and other
cephalopods, it is found that they
/ possess large and well-developed
brains.
Obviously, it would be quite unfair
to classify mollusks, intellectually
speaking, with insects, which are,
many of them, extremely intelligent
animals. Their brains, though so
minute, are capable of mighty good
thinking, and afford the best possible
illustration Of the fact that quality
rather than size makes a high
grade mind machine. The ant is ia
nous for it's cleverness, and so like
wise, is the bee. There are very few
smarter creatures than the everyday
housefly, who establishing itself as
a parasite On man, knows enough
from the start to regard him as an en-
envy implacably hostile. Entomolo-
gists say that the cockroach is a
wonderfully brainy animal, and an
equal tribute is paid to the bedbug.
| The nervous system of the fly is a
nerve cord with a series of ganglia
strung along it, extending the whole
length of the body. This cord cor
responds to the spinal cord in a human
being or other vertebrate animals. The
biggest of the ganglia, which is con-
sidered as the brain proper, is situated
in the upper part of the head and by
means OF nerve filaments controls the
connected directly with the other gan
eyes, mouth and antennae. The legs,
| wi no ,t <>pt ho
glia. 1t is pretty much the same with
the mosquito. Perhaps some persons
will assert that mosquito does not
possess high degree of cunning; if
! SO it must certainly he that the per-
sons in question have had small eX-
perience with the insect Oh, no;
the time has arrived when it must be
admitted that the lower creatures gen.
orally have minds of their own, and
that they do their thinking more or
less as we do. Even bugs have brains,
and know how to use them.
Fishes are comparatively stupid an
imals, but they have brains too The
national museums collection includes
quite number Of models of them 1t
is noticeable that the so-called optic
lobes" which comprise the thought
apparatus Immediately connected with
vision, are enormously developed. This
Is because a fish depends upon the
g. nse Of sight for it's food while not
requiring much intelligence in a gen.
eral way for the transaction of it's
business in life. The brains of FISH
are small and smooth, lacking con-
volutions. However, the notion that
omplextconvulations necessarily in
dictate high mental power was exploded
some time ago. The brain of whale
is more deliberately convoluted than
that of man, and the same is true of
the porpoise and the elephant
Poor Mr.. Frog, who Is always getting
chopped up for scientific purposes, is
found to have very inferior sort of
brain. His only talent is for bug
hunting. inasmuch as he feeds on in
sects almost exclusively. There does
| not seem to be much difference be-