And the question of incompatibility or mutual repulsion of factors
is of the gravest concern; as, for instance, if it were the case--and
the illustration is perhaps none too far-fetched--that the factor for
the brooding instinct and the factor for intellect can scarcely be
allotted together to a single cell.
This question of compatibilities is illustrated very strikingly by the
case of the worker-bee. There is as yet no purely Mendelian
interpretation of this case, Mendel's own laborious work upon heredity
in bees having been entirely lost, and practically nothing having been
done since. Yet, as will be evident, the main argument of Geddes and
Thomson leads us to a similar interpretation of this case in terms of
compatibility.
The worker-bee is an individual of a most remarkable and admirable kind,
from whom mankind have yet a thousand truths to learn. She is
distinguished primarily by the rare and high development of her nervous
apparatus. In terms of brain and mind, using these words in a general
sense, the worker-bee is almost the paragon of animals. The ancients
supposed that the queen-bee was indeed the queen and ruler of the hive.
Here, they thought, was the organizing genius, the forethought, the
exquisite skill in little things and great, upon which the welfare of
the hive and the future of the race depend. But, in point of fact, the
queen-bee is a fool.
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