em

Lavin

with pleasure, and its absence with pain. By | ings have nothing in common with an ethicaloidi past experience an association has been formed judgment such as that of an Australian, who between this feeling of pain and such move- having held out his leg for the punishment of ments of the head as tend to recover some spearing, judges that he is wounded more than part of that group, its recovery being again his common law warrants.* associated with movements which, de facto, diminish the distance between the dog and his mistress. The dog, therefore, pricks up his ears, raises his head, and looks round. His

mistress is nowhere to be seen; but at the

corner of the field there is visible a gate at

the end of a lane which resembles a lane in

which she has been used to walk. A phantasm (or image) of that other lane and of his mistress walking there, presents itself to the imagination of the dog; he runs to the present lane, but on getting into it she is not there. From the lane, however, he can see a tree at the other side of which she was wont to sit; the same process is repeated, but she is not to be found. Having arrived at the tree he thence finds his way home. By the action of such feelings, imaginations, and associations -which we know to be vera causa · I believe all the apparently intelligent actions of animals may be explained without the need of calling in the help of a power, the existence of which is inconsistent with the mass, as a whole, of the phenomena they exhibit.*

The clever

And he proceeds to give instances of
errors of judgment in birds, who some-
times build upon houses which are being
ceded that the judgment of animals is
pulled down, etc. It may be readily con-
often at fault, even as the same quality is
frequently deficient in men.
est architects frequently err with regard
to the position, strength, and convenience
of the buildings they erect, and more fre-
quently still with regard to the materials
they employ; but birds, even if they do
occasionally err, certainly use a consider-
able amount of judgment and foresight in
the erection of their nests, and frequently
abandon a half-erected nest if it appears
to them unsuitable in position, or defi-
cient in strength, whilst the material em-
ployed is certainly varied according to
circumstances. Wood tells us of some
swallows who selected a warm spot over

Surely the writer has drawn largely a baker's oven for their nest, but finding upon his own imagination in this definí- that the ordinary mud employed by them tion of a dog's imagination. If a man lost crumbled and fell from the heat, they his way in a large open plain, and there sought a more tenacious clay, which be should be neither sun nor stars to help came hardened and half-baked by the fire, him, bis first idea would be to raise his thus forming a secure habitation. Many head and search diligently for some land- instances of this change of material might mark to guide him, and this action would be given: thus, the kapock vogel (a kind be regarded as intelligence of the first of oriole) of South Africa, which, before order; why, therefore, should that be in- the introduction of sheep into the colony, telligent action in a man which is only used the silky down of a kind of wild apparently so, consisting of a group of cotton-plant to make its nest, began feelings, imaginations, and associations, afterwards to mix the down with wool, in a dog? Philosophers seem to delight and now generally uses wool only in hiding, beneath a mass of verbiage, more easily obtainable and felting totruths which common sense might other-gether more densely than the cotton wise discover and bring to the light of down; sometimes it takes a little of the day. If a dog has feelings, imaginations, latter as a lining. The following incident, and associations, and a man has feelings, imaginations and associations, and these groups of sensations in both animals lead to similar actions, who shall dare to assert that there is a radical difference between these same sensations in the higher and in

the lower animals?

Animals [says Professor Mivart] apprehend things in different relations, but no one that I know of has brought any evidence that they apprehend them as related, or their relations as relations. A dog may feel shame, or possibly (though I do not think probably) a migrating bird may feel agony at the imagination of an abandoned brood; but these feel

-as

related, by an eye-witness, of another of the oriole tribe, called in South Africa the yellow finch, or golden oriole, will illustrate not only the judgment exercised by these birds in the selection of a suitable position for their nest, but also the difference in the judgment of two birds of the same species. Most people are familiar with the nest of the oriole, and know that it is constructed so as to depend from a branch overhanging a stream, and has a long passage at the bottom; both the passage and the position of the nest being, as is supposed, for the purpose of

* Presidential Address, by Professor St. George † See "Man and Beast," by Rev. J. G. Wood.

Presidential Address, by Professor St. George Mivart.

Mivart.

Lese

idera

avoiding snakes, which are the natural Watson* of an elephant in captivity enemies of small birds. Our informant which, in order to recover a sixpence having been attracted by the chattering of which had fallen out of his reach, blew these birds at pairing-time, watched them with his trunk against the opposite wall for some days attentively. After a con- until the current of air thus produced siderable amount of apparent consultation brought the coin near enough to be picked they seemed to have selected an appropri- up, would show an amount of intelligence ate bough, and the male commenced to certainly not inferior to that of many build the nest; he had proceeded as far men. as the passage, when without ceremony With regard to concerted action, which the female came and deliberately pulled Professor Mivart denies to the lower anithe whole to pieces. The nest was mals, Sir John Lubbock has proved its recommenced, and the passage placed in existence in the case of ants, which ceran opposite direction; but when all but tainly combine both for attack, defence, finished, the hen again pulled the whole and the seizure and storage of their prey; edifice to pieces, not leaving a single and we should have imagined that the thread on the bough. The male at this concerted action of innumerable animals appeared angry, but after considerable had been too well known to admit of altercation selected a fresh bough and doubt or dispute. Even animals of differagain began his labor, and this time was ent species will combine for purposes of allowed to complete it without interrup-hunting or of plunder, whilst tame or tion, and in due time it was occupied and domesticated animals undoubtedly enter the young successfully hatched and brought up. The reason of the hen's apparent caprice being that the first bough was too stiff and unyielding, strong enough probably to support a snake, whilst the second, although sufficiently strong for the nest, swayed readily to and fro, and would have been unapproachable by snakes.

into the wishes of their human masters, and act in concert with them, in order to bring them to pass-as, for example, tame elephants, as described by Sir Emerson Tennant and other writers, who will carry out man's wishes in making captives of their wild brethren; and shepherds' dogs which seem in a marvellous manner to comprehend their master's inThe judgment displayed by sporting tentions, and to combine with him in dogs in refusing to follow a bad shot is carrying them out. "If," says Professor well known; and as regards punishment, Mivart, "animals were capable of delibthe sagacity of the dog is at least equal erately acting in concert, the effects would to that of the Australian referred to above, soon make themselves known to us so for although he will come unwillingly to forcibly, as to prevent the possibility of receive a well-merited blow, yet all mas- mistake." We suspect many travellers ters know that an unmerciful punishment have been unpleasantly convinced of the will provoke obstinacy or retaliation from possibility of the concerted action of wild the best and most obedient of dogs;* animals, both in the caution observable whilst the horse and the ass are equally in their avoidance of the snares of the discriminating, for to beat either to ex-hunter and in the boldness with which cess will generally induce sullenness or restiveness in an animal of spirit, this being their only mode of showing their knowledge that they have not deserved the punishment inflicted. The judgment of the elephant also would seem to be peculiarly acute, leading often to acts of vengeance for an injury received so long ago as to be forgotten by all but the recipient; whilst the incident related by

One

We cannot refrain from giving the following interesting instance of a dog's conscience which comes to us from a trustworthy source. A pet dog given to killing young ducks was punished for the crime by being made to stand on his hind legs in a corner of the room. day he came in and placed himself unbidden in this position, and upon search being made it was found that he had been up to his old trick of duck-killing, and had thus shown his sense of deserving punishment. Could a child do more than this in confessing a fault?

they will sometimes descend in a body on the unprotected. The practice so well known of posting sentinels to warn off danger, and of choosing leaders who are implicitly obeyed, surely denotes combined action and discipline incompatible with that mere blind instinct which writers of Professor Mivart's school alone allow to the lower animals.

A somewhat ludicrous example of concerted action among domesticated animals came under our own immediate notice

dary gate, and the ducks never thought of going to rest with their day companions, but voluntarily retired in an orderly manner to their solitary quarters.

SO

ht

the

some years ago in Ireland, and we give it | every morning wandered away from home fes here because we can vouch for its abso- and joined the stock in the farmyard,s, lute truth. At a house in the neighbor- returning every evening escorted by a hood of Dublin, where a good deal of drake belonging to the farmer. The three ce poultry was kept, a hen with a young would waddle together to the gate which brood was allowed to take possession of shut off the cottage grounds from the a quiet corner under the boiler in the road, and there, after many bowings and back kitchen, to be secure from rats, quackings, the two ducks would creep which were very abundant in the out- under the gate, the drake remaining outhouses. To this select society was also side and watching his late companions admitted a young duck, the sole remnant until they reached their resting-place; he of a brood which had been given to the would then quack loudly, as much as to nurse, and by her consigned to the care say, "Are you all right?" and on receiv of the hen. These lived happily together ing an answering quack would turn and until the duckling had attained almost to run off quickly to his own harem; and full duckhood, when one evening there this, which in human beings would be was a great outcry in the back kitchen, called a "polite act of seeing the ladies the hen, in a state of great agitation, re- safe home," was repeated night after fusing to retire to rest as usual with her night as long as we continued to watch, progeny, whilst she assailed vigorously and how much longer we know not, but with beak and claw her fellow-lodger the the remarkable thing was that the drake duck, who occupied apparently her accus-never attempted to go beyond the bountomed place. Many efforts were made to reconcile the hen, but in vain. The nurse was at last called, who, after looking at the scene for a few moments, exclaimed, "Why, that is not my duck!" So the cheat was brought out and examined; it proved to be of nearly the same size and color, but a stranger, whilst the true duck was found quietly reposing with its fellows in the outhouse, and on being brought into the back kitchen, was immediately welcomed by the hen, who retired quietly to rest with her as before, whilst the intruder, being ignominiously dismissed, went off probably to its own abode. That there must have been concerted action here is evident, otherwise how could the two ducks have agreed as to their respective positions? but how, supposing the act to have originated from a desire of casting off leading-strings and Occupying its own position in the duck world, the duckling could have found another so nearly like itself, and have induced it to come in and occupy its deserted place in the back kitchen, is certainly incomprehensible; and but for the conduct of the hen the cheat would not have been discovered. It is somewhat singular that another instance of mutual understanding, although perhaps not so decidedly illustrative of concerted action as the former, has also come under our notice with regard to tame ducks, birds which are seldom much noticed. In a village, or rather hamlet, in Wiltshire, was a farmhouse where many ducks and fowls were kept, and at a short distance a cottage, the occupier of which had a little poultry and two ducks only. These

These instances we have selected from our own experience, in preference to anec dotes already published, because we feel sure that every observer of animals may in like manner add to the authenticated instances of animal intelligence, and that every such incident will increase the observer's appreciation of the power of thought in creatures, which ignorance has denounced as stupid and devoid of sense. How far acts of this kind can be. accounted for by that blind instinct which is supposed to be the sole guide of such animals, we must leave philosophers to settle to their own satisfaction, if not to that of ordinary observers; for ourselves, we confess that we see in them the same reasoning faculty possessed by the human race, though lower in degree, as it must necessarily be, when we consider not only the difference in external circumstances, arising from their being the absolute slaves of man, but also the shortness of their lives, which prevents the accumulation of that knowledge which results from experience, and the differences of physical structure, which render many of the actions of man impossible to the brute. The mental capacity of the lower animals can never be compared with those of CIVILIZED man, who has accumulated the acquired knowledge of innumerable generations, but as Dr. Lindsay has shown, it may in many instances compare favorably with that of some savages, and even with that of young children; for when

sionability and reactions of a rhizopod, and A science which should include the impresexclude the far more striking impressionability and reactions of Venus's fly-trap, and of other insectivorous plants, the recognized number of which is greatly on the increase, must be a very partial and incomplete science. If psychology is to be extended (as I think Mr. Spencer is most rational in extending it) to the whole animal kingdom, it must be made to include the vegetable kingdom also.*

At present naturalists would hesitate to allow that the apparently voluntary motions of plants were the result of incipient reason; nevertheless, if asked to define the precise boundaries of the animal and vegetable world, and where automatic action ends and reason begins, they would confess their utter inability to do so, for in the lowest forms the two kingdoms shade off so gradually as to become intermingled and inseparable, and if reason should be held to commence with animal life, we know not where to seek it.

Professor Mivart says, quoting from Mr. | caught they hold them securely by what Lewes, "If we see a bud, after we have would seem to be voluntary motion, and, learned that it is a bud, there is always a moreover, have to a certain extent the glance forward at the flower and back- power of choice, since they reject unsuitward at the seed... but what animal able objects when presented. Therefore, sees a bud at all except as a visible sign Professor Mivart says truly: — of some other sensation?"* we cannot dfail to observe that the whole argument is invalidated by the words, after we have learned that it is a bud, for the child untaught cares as little (as the lowest animal) dafor the bud "except as a visible sign of some other sensation," and the savage, until he has attained to the agricultural stage (which is one of semi-civilization), will certainly not look backward to the seed when seeing a bud, even if experi tence has taught him to expect therefrom first a flower and then a fruit, and in this not case the bud would in like manner be regarded as "a visible sign of some other sensation"-i.e., of hunger. There can be little doubt that alike in the child, the savage, and the lower animals, the chief and primary sensation is that of hunger, and the means of gratifying that natural craving, so necessary in order to sustain and increase the vital force, becomes instinctive in all animals. The simple act, therefore, of seeking for and seizing food within easy reach can hardly be regarded as an act of reason, for, says the Rev. J. G. Wood, "Reason differs from instinct in the widest possible manner, the former being an exercise of the will, and the latter independent of it. Instinct is im- All mental processes are accompanied by planted at birth, while reason is an after- nervous processes; or, to adopt the convenient terms of Professor Huxley, psychosis is invagrowth of the mind." When, therefore, the young animal, whether human or not, of this association, according to the best lights riably associated with neurosis. The nature seizes the first thing which presents itself, of our present knowledge, is probably as foland devours it if eatable, whether good lows. Nerve-tissue consists of two elementary or bad, the act is one of instinct, but when parts-viz., nerve-cells and nerve-fibres. The it learns to reject some things, and to nerve-cells are usually collected into aggrechoose others, the choice denotes reason; gates, which are called nerve-centres, and to and when an animal shows a sagacity these nerve-centres bundles of nerve-fibres equal or superior to that of the savage in come and go. The incoming nerve-fibres the methods he employs for entrapping serve to conduct stimuli or impressions to the his favorite prey, we certainly cannot cells in the nerve centre; and when the cells refuse to him in this particular instance thus receive a stimulus or impression they liberate a discharge of nervous energy, which reason equal to that of his human com- then courses down the outgoing nerve-fibres, petitor. But here we are met by the to be distributed either to other nerve-centres great and at present unanswerable ques- or else to muscles. It is in this way that tion, Where are we to fix the bounds of nerve-centres are able to act in harmony with this faculty of reason? what is its origin? one another, and so to co-ordinate the action and how low in the scale of animated of the muscles over which they preside. This nature can it be traced? Darwin has shown that some plants have movements which would appear sentious. Not only do they lay snares for insects, but when

• Presidential Address, by Professor St. George Mivart.

† Man and Beast, by Rev. J. G. Wood, p. 50.

Automatic action, which we take to be synonymous with instinct, and which is common to both man and the lower animals, is thus analyzed by Mr. Romanes :

fundamental principle of neurosis is what physiologists call the principle of reflex action; and you will perceive that all it requires for its manifestation is an incoming nerve, a nerve-centre, and an outgoing nerve, which