Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 2

ANTS AND SOME OTHER INSECTS; AN INQUIRY INTO THE PSYCHIC POWERS OF THESE ANIMALS (1904) WHEN discussing the ant-mind we must consider that these small animals on the one hand differ very widely from ourselves in organization but on the other hand have come through so-called convergence to possess in the form of a social common- wealth a peculiar relationship to us. My subject however requires the discussion of so many complicated questions that I am compelled to assume acquaintance with the work of others especially the elements of psychology and in addition the works of P. Huber Wasmann von Buttel-Reepen Darwin Romanes Lubbock my Fourmis de la Sutsse and many others. Since the functions ot the sense-organs constitute the basis of comparative psychology I must also refer to a series of articles entitled Sensations des Insectes which I have recently published (1900-1901) in the Rivista de Biologia Generate edited by Dr. P. Celesia. In these papers I have defined my position with respect to various authors especially Plateau and Bethe. Very recently Bethe Uexkull and others have denied the existence of psychic powers in invertebrate animals. They explain the latter as reflex-machines and take their stand on the ground of the so-called psycho-physical parallelism for the purpose of demonstrating our inability to recognize mental qualities in these animals. They believe however that they can prove the mechanical regularity of behavior but assume unknown forces whenever they are left in the lurch in their explanations. They regard the mind as first making its appearance in the vertebrates whereas the old Cartesians regarded all animals in contradistinction to man as mindless (unconscious) machines.