ted caused him to lose many of those instincts | wanting or in abeyance among civilized possessed by the lower animals, and still men. retained by the lowest races of mankind, as, for example, that peculiar homing instinct which exists in many insects and animals, and is possessed in a far higher degree by the savage than by the civilized man, and in which there would seem to Ibe a combination of intelligence and instinct which Dr. Lindsay has properly 21. classed among "unsolved problems." ever arel If Mr. Romanes be correct in affirming that only cerebral reflexes are attended with ideation, it is obvious that animals devoid of brains can possess no intelligence, and that sense would become developed in exact proportion to the size of the brain; yet we find that, next to man, the most indubitable proofs of intelligence are to be found among insects. "LookThe wonderful way in which bees and ing at the nervous system of insects," pigeons will find their way home from says Wood, "in whom there is no defiimmense distances is well known, and the nite brain, but merely a succession of anecdotes told of the same faculty in ganglia united by a double nervous chord, dogs and cats are innumerable and too many physiologists have thought that well authenticated to admit of dispute. reason could not be one of the attributes Instances have been known in which of the insect race. Yet nothing is more dogs have found their way home even certain than that they are able to converse across the ocean. Wood relates that a with each other and communicate ideas, dog found its way from Calcutta to Inver- this fact showing that they must possess keithing, Scotland, coming in a ship from reason.' ""* "The first animals in which, Calcutta to Dundee, and thence in a col- so far as I can ascertain," says Romanes, lier to Inverkeithing; and Watson tells "we may be quite sure that reflex action of one coming to Northumberland from is accompanied by ideation, are the inAmerica, another to England from Bre- sects," and he goes on to give the obsermen, and another to Edinburgh from vations of Darwin and Sir John Lubbock Rome. Such instances might be given with regard to the teachability of bees, ad infinitum, but they are not confined adding, "These observations would seem to dogs and cats, bees and pigeons. to prove that the grade of intelligence is Horses, mules, asses, and cattle possess higher in some articulata than it is among the same power in a greater or less de- the lower vertebrata." It would, in truth, gree. We have been informed that wild appear that the hymenoptera, which incattle and horses bred in the Orange Free | clude bees, wasps, and ants, have attained State will find their way back several to the same rank among insects as man months after having been taken some among mammals; and the wonders related hundreds of miles into the Cape Colony, by competent observers of the habits and and so well is this known to the colonists, customs, division of labor, industry, and that in buying cattle or horses from long laws of these social insects seem absodistances they always go to the same spot lutely incredible. The ants, especially, to seek them if lost. Sometimes as many seem to have attained to a perfect Utopia, as forty or fifty per cent. will find their according to Belt, who describes their way back by twos and threes to their old various communities and the order obquarters; and the most singular thing is, served in them; their wars and capture that they will not retrace their steps by of slaves; their agricultural and engineerthe way they came, but will generally ing works; their tenderness towards their strike across country in a direct line, young, and the care of their domestic although horses will sometimes follow the cattle; their methods of communication road. That migratory birds will return and of combination for the common weal year after year to the same spot for build- - until we are almost tempted to believe ing is well known, and it is a fact truly that man is himself inferior to these little marvellous, when we remember the vast ingenious, self-sacrificing insects. Belt distances traversed by these little wan- makes the following comparison between derers, and the perils encountered by the the two:way. The development of this same quality among savages has been recorded by many travellers, and, although probably much depends upon minute observation, yet it seems evident that both with savages and the lower animals a certain or instinct is called into use for this particular purpose, which is either sense The hymenoptera standing at the head of the articulata, and the mammalia at the head of the vertebrata, it is curious to mark how in zoological history the appearance and develop. ment of these two orders (culminating in the Man and Beast, by Rev. J. G. Wood, p. 165. † Animal Intelligence, by George J. Romanes. one in ants, and in the other in the primates) | allowing cerebral reflexes, and conse eve run parallel. The hymenoptera and the mam- quently thought, in animals possessing malia both make their first appearance early brains like our own, conjoined to bodies in the secondary period, and it is not until the commencement of the tertiary epoch that ants and monkeys appear upon the scene. There the parallel ends; no one species of ant has attained any great superiority above all its fellows, whilst man is very far in advance of all the other primates.* Dr. L structure to the "human form divine;"ten presenting more or less similarity of but, as before stated, intelligent actions are less distinctly developed in the lower vertebrata than in the higher articulata, even as they would seem to be less marked in the lower articulata than inter It seems, however, difficult to decide some insectivorous plants. Until re how many of the attainments of ants and cently, fishes were probably the least other insects are to be attributed to in- known, and therefore believed to be the herited instinct, and how much to pure least intelligent of the vertebrata; but mental processes; and this inquiry be- recent researches show that they are by comes more complicated when we con- no means so stupid as we have commonly sider that the greater part of these com- supposed them to be, and that, in the munities consists of sterile females and construction of their nests, care of and neuters, differing greatly in form, size, affection for their young, and skill in en and color in the same community, snaring their prey, they are quite equal who could not hand down their experi- to many terrestrial animals, whilst there ences to their descendants, whilst a great can be no doubt that they are equally portion of their short lives is passed in amenable to instruction, coming to be fed a state of metamorphosis, in forms and at a call, etc. Of course there is, doubt-t with instincts totally different from those less, much difference in the mental pow of their adult state. So great was this er, not only of different species, but also difficulty felt to be by Darwin that he in individuals of the same species. It is assures us he at one time believed it well-known that some fish will allow themfatal to his theory of natural selection; † selves to be caught more than once in and even now Sir John Lubbock con- precisely the same manner, which does fesses that the metamorphosis of insects not seem to denote a high degree of intelseems to him one of the greatest difficul- ligence; and Mr. Romanes relates the ties of the Darwinian theory: "In most experiment of Professor Möbius to show cases, the development of the individual how slowly a pike learnt that certain min-a reproduces to a certain extent that of the nows were protected from him by a glass race; but the motionless, imbecile pupa partition, and how the association of ideas cannot represent a mature form." It thus established became so fixed, that does, indeed, pass our comprehension how when the glass was removed, the minthe acute instincts and undoubted reason-nows still remained unmolested. ing powers of these most interesting creatures can become so rapidly and fully developed through so many different phases; nevertheless, in the adult form the cerebral development is such as we might expect in accordance with the theory of Mr. Romanes. Belt says, "The cerebral ganglia in ants are more developed than in any other insect," and that in all the hymenoptera, at the head of which they stand, "they are many times larger than in the less intelligent orders, such as beetles." + If there should seem a difficulty in admitting intelligent action in plants, and in insects and other articulata so differently constituted from ourselves, there would not appear to be the same difficulty in more most narrowly observed, and are In birds the instincts are very strongly developed, and it has often been said that they are invariable; this, however, we be * Mind in the Lower Animals, pp. 71-98. ther T the the it to b 21:3 ad lieve to be quite untrue. We have already | him and his burden along by the ears. given some instances of a change of ma- That they are remarkably fertile in expeterial in nest-building by wild birds in dients cannot be doubted, and that their accordance with circumstances, and birds, actions cannot be explained by any theory when domesticated or in captivity, lose of inherited or acquired instinct is equally many of their wild instincts, and acquire certain, since they are the result of unhabits totally at variance with those to foreseen and constantly varying circumwhich they were once accustomed. The stances. acquisition of human speech by the parrot is certainly a proof of the bird's imitative higher vertebrated animals [says Mr. Romanes] As regards the association of ideas by the powers, and of its general intelligence, it is only necessary to say that in all these anialthough perhaps few would agree with mals, as in ourselves, this principle of associa Dr. Lindsay in supposing that the words tion is the fundamental principle of their are uttered by the bird with a full under-psychology; that in the more intelligent anistanding of their meaning. Nevertheless, mals associations are quickly formed, and it must be allowed that they are often when once formed are very persistent; and in used very appropriately. We have often general, that so far as animal ideation goes, heard a parrot call the dog or a servant in the laws to which it is subject are identical with those under which our own ideation is the precise tones of the master, and laugh performed.* derisively when its summons sponded to; but how much of this was simple imitation, and how much spontaneous mental effort, it would be impossible to decide. We have not space to repeat the numerous anecdotes given by Dr. Lindsay of the mental powers of birds, as culled from the works of naturalists, but it seems to us indubitable that reason, as well as instinct, must be attributed to the interesting denizens of the forest. ite e was re When we come to the rodents, we find tales innumerable of the cleverness of rats and mice, táles which almost every housekeeper might supplement by others equally remarkable. Their ingenuity in escaping snares rivals that of the fox, whilst their mutual understanding and combination for obtaining food, and some times for attack and defence, are well known. Watson speaks of their care of the maimed and blind, and gives, on the authority of Dr. Henderson, a confirmation of the fact observed by an older traveller in Ireland, of from six to ten mice collecting in parties, selecting a piece of dried cow-dung, placing upon it berries, etc., and using it as a raft in crossing a stream; they launch it, embark upon it, and range themselves round the edge, their heads in the middle, their tails pendent in the stream to serve as rudders.* The same author also gives instances of rats carrying potatoes in the manner so often ridiculed, but which an eye-witness has assured us he has seen done in the case of eggs-viz, that one rat will lie down, hold the egg or potato between his four paws, whilst his companions drag In proof of the great reasoning power possessed by some animals, Mr. Romanes gives two observations made by Dr. Rea, the one on a domestic and the other on a wild animal, which are so curious and important as to deserve repetition. The first was of a dog in Orkney, “which, being allowed to accompany its master to church on alternate Sundays, had to swim a channel nearly a mile wide; and, before taking to the water, used to run a mile to the north when the tide was flowing, and a nearly equal distance to the south when the tide was ebbing, almost invariably calculating his distance so well that he landed at the nearest point to the church."† The other instance is even more remarkable, as a proof of strong reasoning power in a wild animal. Desiring to obtain some Arctic foxes, Dr. Rea set various kinds of traps; but as the foxes knew these traps from previous experience he was unsuccessful. Accordingly he set a kind of trap with which the foxes in that part of the country were not acquainted. This consisted of a loaded gun set upon a stand pointing at the bait. A string connected the the fox seized the bait he discharged the gun, trigger of the gun with the bait, so that when and thus committed suicide. In this arrangement the gun was separated from the bait by a distance of about thirty yards, and the string which connected the trigger with the bait was concealed throughout nearly its whole distance in the snow. The gun-trap thus set was successful in killing one fox, but never in killing a second; for the foxes afterwards adopted either of two devices whereby to secure the these devices was to bite through the string at bait without injuring themselves. One of Lecture on Animal Intelligence, by George J. † Ibid. Reasoning Power in Animals, by Rev. J. Selby Romanes. Watson, p. 307. its exposed part near the trigger, and the other | may say civilized, without the aid of man. device was to burrow up to the bait through In thus judging, we shall find that many the snow at right angles to the line of fire, so of them have established laws, offenders that although in this way they discharged the against which are punished; that their gun, they escaped with perhaps only a pellet leaders are chosen for strength and cour age, often by single combat, and that the is obeyed, and sometimes conqueror blindly followed even to death; that upon this leader devolves the duty of posting sentinels, of conducting foraging parties, and of providing for the safety of the young and feeble in case of attack or retreat from the enemy. Such combina tions exist among insects and birds as well as among mammals, and certainly prove the existence of something above blind instinct, for such combinations could not exist without some means of intercommunication, some power of choice, some association of ideas.* or two in the nose. Dr. Rea adds that in that part of the world traps are never set with strings; so that there can have been no special association in the foxes' minds between strings and traps. Moreover, after the death of fox number one, the track on the snow showed that fox number two, notwithstanding the temptation offered by the bait, had expended a great deal of scientific observation on the gun before he undertook to sever the cord. Lastly, with regard to burrowing at right angles to the line of fire, Dr. Rea justly deemed this so extraordinary a circumstance that he repeated the experiment a number of times, in order to satisfy himself that the direction of the burrowing was really to be attributed to thought and not to chance.* In accordance with the principles of evolution, we should expect to find the size of the brain increasing in proportion to the intelligence of the animal, and this seems to be at least partially the case. Watson gives the following table of the proportionate size of the brains of certain animals: "The weight of man's brain, in proportion to his body, averages about I to 27; that of long-armed apes, about I to 40; fox, I to 205; horse, I to 400; elephant, I to 500." Here we see the ape ranking next to man, but with a great interval between, whilst a very much wider interval intervenes between the ape and the fox, which, as we have seen above, often shows exceptional intelligence, the horse and the elephant ranking far below the fox, although we should have been inclined to assign to the latter a very high place in the scale of intelligence. But, in truth, it is well known that mere weight of brain is not always to be depended upon in gauging intellectual power; for the weight of an idiot's brain will often exceed that of a philosopher. The form, quality, and the various convolutions have all to be taken into account, and, with regard to the inferior animals, we do not think that, as yet, sufficient data exist for establishing that gradation which our own observation tells us certainly exists in the scale of animal intelligence. If we desire to judge of the natural capacity of animals, we must observe them in their wild state, and find out how far they have become organized, or we Lecture on Animal Intelligence, by George J. Romanes. † Reasoning Power in Animals, by Rev. J. Selby Watson, p. 281. that we should expect to find the natural In We have not said so much as we should like to have said with regard to the apes and monkeys, the limits of a paper like the present preventing full details. Travellers all agree in crediting them with wonderful prudence and cunning, great affection for their young, and care for their wounded, combined, however, with a singular absence of abstract reasoning power. They will never put a stick on a fire to warm themselves, and may often be caught by most simple expedients, as, for instance, by cutting a hole in a melon: the monkey will thrust in his hand, grasp a handful of seeds, and being unable to withdraw it thus filled, will suffer himself to be taken rather than relax his hold. Yet in crossing streams they show wonderful intelligence, forming of their bodies a swinging bridge, and allowing the young and infirm to pass over them; and if in hunting under stones for scorpions or other food, they find a stone too heavy for one, others will come to assist in raising it. Also in feeding upon prickly pears, they deliberately rub them in the sand to free them of prickles. All these acts are indicative of reason. id proper to them in their wild state are in hat: abeyance, and although in every herd there is still a leader, it is no longer the that strongest and most courageous, but either one appointed by man, or an old, experidenced animal, knowing in the ways of the human master. and ONE that words used by the mistress to point out a certain row of cards; but he gave us the impression of certainly knowing some of the letters, and particularly "S;" in any case it would be impossible to deny to such an animal a great amount of intelligence over and above natural or acquired When, however, we come to the dog, instinct; and it would be equally impossiwhich has for so many ages been the ble to suppose the attainments of the chosen friend and companion, as well as Scotch collie to result from instinct alone. the trusty servant of man, the case is dif- One of the most remarkable signs of the ferent; here the efforts of man have been acuteness of this intelligent breed of dogs directed to the development of mental is their power of counting as well as colrather than bodily qualities, or to the lecting a flock of sheep. It is well known perfection of some especial inherited in- that if sent to bring together a flock from stinct, and hence in the different breeds the hills, they will do so without leaving of dogs we get every imaginable quality, one; that they will separate their masand added thereto as consequent upon ter's sheep from others with which they the familiarity of intercourse subsisting have become mingled, and if told to bring between them and their masters, a docil- them two or three at a time will do so ity, teachableness, fidelity, and wealth of without fail. We cannot suppose it posaffection far above that of any other ani sible that they could do all this without mal. Our various breeds of dogs Mr. some knowledge of numbers, and some Darwin believes to have been derived comprehension of the meaning of human from several wild species, yet at the pres- speech; indeed, it appears certain that ent day we have little opportunity of dogs, and other animals also in an inferior judging of the qualities of the wild dog, degree, do understand the meaning of since few now exist. There was a breed words addressed to them by man, and do at the Cape, great, brindled creatures with very frequently also hear and understand erect ears, which were the terror of the that which is not addressed to them, it early settlers, from their habit of rushing would otherwise be impossible to explain among a flock of sheep, biting them be- those cases in which dogs so frequently neath and devouring the intestines, leav- anticipate their masters' intentions, geting the sheep to die of the horrible ting out of the way when they overhear wound; but these have been extermi- they are to be shut up, appearing far in nated or driven into the interior; they advance on a road they have heard their seem always to have hunted in packs like masters speak of following, etc. Numerwolves, which they somewhat resembled. ous other authentic instances of canine The semi-wild dogs of Constantinople, so understanding might be given did space well known to travellers, have made for permit, but for these we must refer our themselves laws and customs which speak readers to the works of naturalists, merely much for the natural capacity and high pointing out in this place as a proof that intelligence of the race, and show what dogs do really comprehend the meaning excellent material man had to work upon of language, the fact that a dog brought when bringing these intelligent creatures up in one country does not understand under his control; whilst the extent to the language of another country, but if which education may be carried is exem- transferred, say, from England to France, plified in the various performing dogs, and has slowly to learn to understand French, particularly in Minos, that little cross-bred even as a child would do. There is, as terrier, which has for some years past every one must have observed, a vast astonished the public by his attainments. difference in the mental capacity of dogs, It is claimed for him that he understands and it is not generally among those of the the first four rules of arithmetic; but purest breed that the greatest capacity is whether he really understands figures or to be found; on the contrary, mongrels simply obeys a given sign from his mis- often show the highest mental power. tress in picking up the right card without We once knew a very handsome Blenhesitation, the quickness and intelligence displayed are wonderful, as also in his choice of photographs, and in the correct spelling of a given word. We watched his proceedings with great interest, and fancied that the clue was given by fixed VOL. XXX. 1550 LIVING AGE. heim spaniel, which, having been taken very early from her mother, seemed to show an arrested mental development; she never could learn to pick a bone as other dogs do, by putting the paw or paws upon it to hold it steadily, but would |