The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

RBLAT'NS OF ORGANISMS. 195must confess, that, with all my faith in naturalselection, I should never have anticipatedthat this principle could have been efficientin so high a degree, had not the case of theseneuter insects led me to this conclusion.""Besides the fact that these neuters are theworkers, there is an additional circumstance,established by Mr. Frederick Smith by observationsin England, confirmed by theobservations of Pierre Ruber in Switzerland,and afterwards verified in the clearestway by Mr. Darwin, that there is a species ofant (formica sanguinea) which captures slavesof a weaker order, making war against theweaker race, carrying off their young, rearingthein within their own nests, and trainingthem to serve. Mr. Darwin was himselfsceptical of such a statement, but gives an interestingnarrative of distinct observations bywhich it was confirmed.The amount of labor undertaken by theworkers from an ants' nest, may be judged byone or two extracts from the records of SirJohn Lubbock. He says, "I once watchedan ant from six in the morning, and sheworked without intermission till a quarter* Origin of Species, 6th ed. p. 233.