CONCLUSION
Reading edition
In view of the foregoing facts illustrative of the mental life of Invertebrates, there remains little ground for denying to creatures below the backboned phyla a certain modicum of intelligence, well in accord with their needs. That any Invertebrate is capable of the process of reasoning is, of course, a debatable question, but the existence of mental processes in these groups is, apparently, indisputable, and where there is mind there is intelligence, however limited it may be.
Forel attributes to Insects passions closely akin to those exhibited by the higher Vertebrates, though these vary considerably with the diverse species. Wasps, certain species of Ants, and a few Beetles, are extremely irritable and pugnacious. Among the less intelligent species no passions are manifest apart from hunger, thirst and sexual appetite. The memory likewise varies according to the species, and, as might be expected, is at a minimum in the small-brained forms and most highly developed in the social Hymenoptera (Bees, Ants and Wasps).
“It must be admitted,” declares Forel, “that Insects are capable of perceiving, of learning, of recollecting, of associating their recollections and of utilizing them to accomplish their ends. They have various emotions and their will is not purely instinctive, but offers individual plastic modifications, adapted to circumstances.”
Although many authorities are inclined to think that Forel goes too far in his estimates of Insect Intelligence, Bouvier’s[24] extensive studies have led him to practically the same conclusions. He rejects Bethe’s claim that Insects are mere reflex machines, because they can adapt themselves to circumstances, acquire new habits, learn to remember, and manifest discernment.
Comparing their organization with ours, McIndoo concludes that Insects “have perhaps accomplished more than we have.... Furthermore some Insects, for example Honey Bees and Plant-lice, have evolved methods for controlling sex; this subject has probably puzzled Man as much as life itself, yet Man can neither control sex nor knows how to control it.... Let us cease looking with scorn upon Insects.”
“We prize so highly all our own aptitudes as to believe that they are unequalled, even when inspired by the least commendable motives,” says Bouvier. “Though bellicose ourselves, we think it strange that beehives or ants-nests should engage in warfare. At times we revert to barbarism by reducing our enemies to slavery, yet we exclaim with surprise at the habits of slave-making Ants.”
There is nowhere any distinct break in the evolutionary series—no fundamental distinction between the animal and the human mind. Protoplasm is protoplasm, wherever found, and mind is mind wherever it becomes manifest. There can no more be two totally distinct and fundamentally different kinds of mind than there can be two or more totally distinct kinds of protoplasm, one human, the other sub-human. The Amœba and Man are both the product of protoplasmic differentiation, and the primordial protoplasmic cell embodied in its substance all potentialities of Life and Mind upon this planet.