The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-10-24
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE.
What n Lecturer Says Cencernips this SUBJ
ject-lnterestinE Examples of Brute
Judgment and Reason.

" COnCeTnlUG b.
ject-lntercstinR Examples of Brute
Judgment and Reason.
Animal intelligence, said Mr.. Ro-
names, in recent lecture in Dublin, is
q subject which has always been Of con-
siderable interest to philosophical minds,
but, as mos3t of you are probably aware,
the interest attaching to this subject has
of late years been greatly increased by
the significance which it has acquired in
relation to the theory of descent. As
the human intelligence is the only order
of intelligence with which we are direct
ly acquainted, and as it is moreover the
highest order of intelligence known to
science, we may conveniently adopt it
as our standard of comparison. 1t is
usually said that animals do pot possess
the faculty of abstraction, and therefore
that the distinction between animal in
telligence and human intelligence con-
sists in this-that animals are not able
to form abstract ideas. But this state
ment is most erroneous. You will re-
member the distinction which 1 laid
down between abstract ideas that may
be developed by simple feelings, such
as hunger, and abstract ideas that can
only be developed by the aid of lam
guage. Well, remembering this dis.
tinction, we shall find that the only
difference between animal intelligence
and human intelligence consists in this
that animal intelligence is unable to
elaborate that class of abstract ideas, the
formation of which depends upon the
faculty of speech. In other words, ami
mails are quite as able to form abstract
ideas as we are, if under abstract ideas
we include general ideas of qualities
which are SO far simple as not to re-
quire to be fixed in our thoughts by
names. For instance, if see fox
prowling about a farmyard, I cannot
doubt that he has been led by hunger to
visit place where he has general idea
that number of good things are to be
fallen in with, just as I myself am led
by similar impulse to visit restau-
rant. And, to take only one other in.
stance, there can be no question that
animals have generalized conception
OF cause and effect. For example, l had
| a setter dog which was greatly afraid of
thunder. One day number of apples
were being shot upon the wooden floor
OF an apple-room, and as each bag of
apples were shot it produced through
the rest of the house noise resembling
that of distant thunder. My dog became
terror-stricken at the sound but as
| soon as brought him to the apple-room
and showed him the tue cause of the
| noise, he became again buoyant and
| cheerful as usual. Another dog which
had used to play at tossing dry bones
to give them the appearance of life. AS
| an experiment L one day attached fine
| thread to dry bone before giving him
the latter to play with after he had
tossed the bone for while as usual,
stood long way off and slowly began
to draw it away from him. So soon as
he percei 7ed that the bone was really
moving on its own account his whole
demeanor changed, and, rushing under
the sofa, he waited horror stricken to
watch the uncanny spectacle of q dry
bone coming to life. l have also gres =
ly frightened this dog by blowing soap
| bubbles along the floor; one of these
he summoned courage enough to touch
| with his paw, but as soon as it vanished
he ran out of the room terrified at so
| mysterious a disappearance. Lastly, I
have put this dog irto paroxysm of
fear by taking him into room alone and
silently making a series of horrible
grimaces. Although 1 had never in my
life hurt this dog, he became greatly
| frightened at my unusual behavior,
which so seriously conflicted with his
general idea of uniformity in matters
Psychological.
OF course, in thus claiming for ami
mails the power of forming general con-
ceptions, ] mean only such general con.
ceptions as can be arrived at by the
logic of feelings. So far, then, as the
logic of feelings can carry them, main
tain that the intellectual operations OF
animals are indistinguishable from those
| Of ourselves. My friend, DIR. Rae, the
well known traveller and naturalist,
knew a dog in Orkney which used to
| accompany his master {, church on al
ternate Sundays. To do so he had to
swim a channel about mile wide; and
before taking to the water he used to
| run about a mile to the north when the
| tide was flowing, and nearly equal
| distance to the south when the tide was
ebbing, "almost invariably calculating
his distance 80 we'll that he landed at
the nearest point to the church." In his
letter TO me DIR. Rae continues " How
the dog managed to calculate the strength
of the spring and neap tides at their va.
rious rates of speed, and always to swim
at the proper angle, is most surprising. 4"
So much, then, for Judgment. For
some good instances of reasoning in ami
mails 1 am also indebted to DIR. Rae.
Desiring to obtain some Arctic foxes, he
set various kinds of traps but, as the
foxes knew these traps from previous
experience, he was unsuccessful Accord
ingly he set kind of trap with which
the foxes in that part of the country
were not acquainted. This consisted Of
a loaded gun set upon stand pointing
at the bait. A string connected the
trigger of the gun with the bait, so that
when the fox seized the bait he dis
charged the gun, and thus committed
suicide.
In this arrangement the gun was
separated from the bait by 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 afterward adopted either of
| two davices whArahv tn sacure tha halt