Episodes of insect life / by Acheta Domestica, [pseud.] ;edited and revised by J.G. Wood.

  • Budgen, L. M., Miss.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Episodes of insect life / by Acheta Domestica, [pseud.] ;edited and revised by J.G. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    phantine performance, can be at a loss for facts, not isolated, entirely at variance with the idea of making of the elephant a mere monster machine; and as for the ant, the following rela- tion,^ with a thousand more, would read strangely of a mechanic agent:— I saw an ant pulling with his mouth a piece of wood. The rest were busy in their own way; but when he came to an ascent, and the load became too much for him, three others came immediately behind, pushed it up to level ground, and then left him. The end he pulled was the smallest, and, as he drew it between two things, it stuck there. After several fruitless efforts, he went behind, pulled it back, and turned it round.” Proceedings such as these accord certainly much more closely with the opinion of the enlightened and pious Sharon Turner (by whom the fact is quoted), that the actions and habits of the insect world display the same kind of animal mind [allowed by the same writer to he judging mind] and feeling which birds and quadrupeds exhibit. If there be a difference, it is not to the disadvantage of insects, for ants, bees, and wasps, and espe- cially the smallest of these, ants, do things, and exercise sensi- bilities, and combine for 'pur'poses, and achieve ends, that bring them nearer to mankind than any other class of animated nature.^'2 We insect men may not relish, perhaps, or care to observe, this approximation towards ourselves, of men-like insects. We would rather, perhaps, make the most of the inferential argu- ment, that because insects proper have avowedly a very large share of instinct, they have therefore no reason at all. We might as well infer of ourselves, contrary to facts, that because we may have a large share of reason we are utterly devoid of instinct. The practice of ants to rear aphides for the future consump- ' From the “Imperial Magazine.” ^ “ Sacred History of the World,” vol, iii.