He then waited for six weeks before again visiting the animal, and when he went into the stable began to fondle the elephant, as he had previously been accustomed to do. Watching his opportunity, the animal filled his trunk with water, and drenched the captain from head to foot. Now in such a case of definite memory of a particular occurrence, we are apt to suppose that the original experience is clearly localized, both in place and time. But a little consideration will show that this is not in the least necessary. All that the facts warrant us in concluding is that the sight of the captain gave rise, by association, to a reinstatement of a previous occurrence.
Animals seem however to show a sense of the lapse of time.
The animal was aware to within a few minutes when the time for his meal had arrived, and began to clamour by hammering on his board if the food was not brought punctually. This it may be said shows a pretty definite localization of time, for the monkey must have remembered that his meal was always brought at such a time. But surely the facts can be quite satisfactorily explained by the, association of certain regularly recurring internal states with the regular satisfaction of hunger. Everyone who has closely watched animals knows how keenly they sense what Dr Stout terms the practical meaning of trivial occurrences which affect their daily life. In the first place, the facts of association seem to warrant the conclusion, which is almost if not quite universally accepted, that there is reinstatement of psychical states.