The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-11-24
HAS HEARD ANTS TALK.
So Thinks a French Naturalist, and His
 Reasons for His Belief


 Sir John Lubbock, as well as many other scientists, has of course studied the ant. but it has been given to a F'renchman a M. Ferel, to make dis covery as regards ants that proves them to be possessed ,3 an intelligence far greater than has been hitherto sup posed. TT
 And this discovery is, nothing more or less than that ants are capable of pro- ducing sounds intelligible to their fel- lows. and even audible to our ears-in other words that they converse with one another
 The way M Ferel proved this was as follows:
 He made a glass funnel, one end smaller than the other, which he placed, the small end downward, in the center of square of plain glass some six ] inches wide, fitting closely enough to | prevent the little insects from crawling out underneath.
 He then took number of ants in a bunch about the size of an ordinary horse chestnut, free from any foreign substances, and, lifting up the funnel, dropped the cluster of insects inside. While the ants were still in a state of bewilderment, and before any of them could reach the edge of the glass, the experimenter covered it with another square similar to the one already in use, which had been surrounded a short distance from it's edge by a rim of putty.
 This effectually confined the little in- seets, and prevented their being crushed
 The two plates of glass were then placed together to within, approximate ly, the thickness of an ants body but close" on one side than on the other, so as to hold some fast and incapable of moving, while others could move about in their narrow prison where they liked.
 On applying th!s box of ants to the ear, as though it had been a watch, M. Ferel was astonished to hear a regular and continuous buzzing noise, some what similar to the sound made by water when boiling in an open vessel, though sometimes a higher note would be struck by one or another of the ants
 Further study of the box of prisoners revealed many interesting facts, The free ants were seen to advance to the sides of the ones that could not move and to endeavor with all their strength to release the prisoners. It was then that the sounds made by the ants be- came louder and more stringent It was evident that these sounds conveyed CD t11g, mi, f1t. Y,,1o1 ,J; ence was to be found in the minute ut terances, which must have been intelli- gible to the tiny captiveS.
 Then came the problem. How was the sound made? M. Ferel proceeded to at once make minute Investigations and submitted live ants to the scrutiny of a very powerful microscope.
 Here, again, an interesting discovery was in store for the investigator. The sides of the little insects were found to be ln one particular place rough and scaly resembling-th of course, on a tiny scale-the teeth of a saw It was by rubbing this that the ant made the sound that had rewarded the seien- lists researches.
 M. Ferel then took a couple of ants and confined them in the glass box al- ready described, imprisoning the one and giving the other liberty to move.
 The ant that had free use of his limbs became at once intensely excited. It rushed about, making, what must have heentalling into consideration the comparative size of a man and an ant a terrible noise The modulations of the insects mode of expression were plainly heard by the scientist
 Then, having apparently exhausted an exceedingly copious vocabulary, the