On Wednesday night, Sir John Lubbock delivered at Essex Hall,
Strand, one of his fascinating lectures on the habits of ants. There was some evidence, he declared, to show that ants even felt affection for each other. Nobody had ever yet seen a quarrel between two ants of the same nest. In one instance, Sir John Lubbock kept a number of ants for seven years. Ultimately, however, they were reduced to two. These two lived together for two years, and then died within a week of each other. There was no apparent external cause for this, and he was inclined to believe the survivor died from the shook of her companion's death. Ante, he found, could reoognise each other after a parting of more than a year. A curious proof that this recogni- tion was not made by means of any signal or pass-word, was afforded by the fact that ants, even when hopelessly drunk, were recognisable by their sober companions. Sir John Lubbock made a number of ants from two different nests drunk. He then made sober ants from one of the
nests only approach the drunk and incapable. At first, the sober ants were at a lose bow to act. Ultimately, however, one of the sober ants took up one of the drunkards not belonging to her own neat, solemnly walked to the end of the table, and pitched her into some water that was there. This was done with all the strange ants. The ants belonging to the same nest were carefully carried home, and no doubt restored. We wonder whether, in Sir Wilfrid. Lawson's opinion, the action of the ants towards the strangers, or towards their friends, was the more moral.
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