The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-29
THE INSECT MIND.
Reasoning Powers of Creatures of
the Insect World.

the Insect w ORD.
From the London Spectator.
The interesting question suggested by
the activities of the gardener ant is
whether it consciously uses its intelli-
gence, or, if not, how far instinct and
reason are working side by side In en-
deavoring to solve it, we are confronted
at the outset with this difficulty. that the
insect mind works on lines remote from
our own experience, and exhibits its meth
DDS by indications very hard for us to
interpret The aloofness of the insect
mind from apprehension by vertebrates'
brains perplexes all inqurers. We can
range ourselves side by side with the con-
structive bird, or the engineering beaver.
There is sympathy between us and them
both in intelligence and feelings. But the
mute and expressionless being which ami
mates the metallic shell of some social in
sect lives out of relation to our lines of
thought. Man and dog may take COM
mon action on the same grounds; but we
cannot see practical problems eye to eye
with an ant
Our sympathy and common share in the
emotions of birds and beasts has very
largely helped US to infer their intellect
ual processes. The border line where
love, fear, wants, and desires originate ac-
ton is common to us with Them and we
know that many animals also share with
us the aesthetic sense. In endeaVoring TO
understand the process of thought In in
sects we have to subtract the whole of this
common ground, and 10 approach the sub
tect almost-not quite-as if it were work.
ing in a different medium What we do
know of their senses seems in some in
stances to keep us at this impossible dis
lance Physical inquiry accentuates these
differences. We know, for instance, that
the compound eyes of many insects must
present objects TO them in different form
from that in which we see them. Some
ants have no eyes at all, yet go about
their daily business quite as well as If
they saw Sir John Lubbock's expert
ments show that they can smell; but, on
the other hand, they cannot hear-or,
rather, do not hear the sounds which we
hear. They are also mute but it is quite
likely that they utter sounds which we
cannot hear. Thus the human world of
sounds is non-existent for the ant, and
very probably the ant brain is busy with
sounds which are non-eXistent for us. At
the same time they have a different quail
ity of sight. which. if transferred to us,
would make US unable to find the Nelson
column in Trafalgar square.
The result of the gap between the mind
Of the man who observes and the mind of
the insect whose activities he watches has
always tended to produce one of two con-
Trajectory forms of Interpretation The
first was TO assume that, because social
bees or ants were engaged in exactly the
same activities as human communities,
their minds were practically the same as
our own; that, in fact, there was some
thing equivalent to human intelligence Of
a very high order with necessarily CORE
spending moral qualities. in the bee, and
that for the purposes of this life there
was, in fact, a tiny soul" in each work
ing member of the hive. This SOUL if the
conclusions of the early naturalists are
examined, is clearly a human intelligence
metamorphosed. This assumption would
explain quite logically the astonishing and
incredible perfection of the material side
of the life OF social insects. 1t also ac-
counted for the apparently moral ideas Of
subordination, seif-sacrihce, and devotion
to duty which their life exhibits. The diff