Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-19
ANIMALS THouGHrs.

| ANiMALS' THOCGHT0
| Their Scope Regulated Not bv Touch and
| Sight, but Probably by smell.
| From the London Giobe.
II 10 very doubtful, indeed whether manila
appreciate how great is the gulf between our
human thoughts and feelings-thouebts mora
y than feelings-and those Of the lower animals
One hears commonplace Of the possibility of
an extra sense, and so on, often enough. but
the entire difference Of mental basis that must
exist between us and the cats, dogs and horses
which we fancy We understand, seems hardly
yer to be conceived. In one direction all ami
mails are alike-all dread death and physical
injury, all engerly seek and accept suitable
| food, all have in their earlier years that ten
dency to release the serious business of after
| life which We call play.
These common needs and inclinations fur
nish mental substratum. a hngua franco, that
roughly all may comprehend, but into its crude
almost formless communications what an in
| Unite amount of ourselves we are inclined to
read in, without further justification.
The lion in the menagerie sprawls, with his
green-gray eyes staring out it seems, into the
infinite. splendid fellow" we say; noble
creature. He is thinking Of the blue noun
tains that bounded his desert world" About as
much, dear poetess, as you, when you have that
| look upon your face. thinking of the sum-
| AAas'oh Vi serles Vi EhtapOnC WetdDOlv.
Let us first analyze little the elements in
| the picture OF the universe painted on our own
| minds 1t is harmony in space and time.
You think OF . thing a. . form having
position In what you call space, and chang
Ing as the minutes. hours and days slip by
The human world is a world of pictures, our
! memories are sight images that we raise from
| their sleep In our brains for little while. We
| seem to live at the back Of our eyes. The hu-
| man world is a visible universe par excellence.
1 Ryrfc d.. u
come to perceive more and more distinctly that
he eye sees SO clearly, not by its own virtue.
| but as the result of the education afforded it
/ by our hands. At first the world OF the child
| must be fiat confusion of shapes which il
| learns to interpret by the movement of its
hands over the forms 1t sees. The vision is at
| first without depth, without relief, without
| modelling, or atmosphere. Prof. Preyer's little
boy. many months old, tried to snatch the lamp
In railway carriage several feet beyond arms
| length.
Those born blind who at Q later age have
been restored to their sight by medical skill,
| and who consequently have not learned to con-
meet sight and touch impressions. fancied all
| the things they saw touched their eyes. In
deed, 1t is one OF the elementary teachings of
psychology that our perception Of space in our
| vision Of the world comes to us through our
| fingers
And the lion has no fingers. Neither do the
| cat, the dog and the horse possess these neces-
| s@r media 10 nice discrimination OF shapes
Hnd position. Ihe horse. with its digts i'm
prisoned in a horny hoof, is in a particularly
bad case. 1t is impossible to believe that the
| painans On the eye OF tnese creatures 10 In
| .erpreted Dy them with anything like the deli
| cacy Q. truth tnat we can attribute TO what we
| zee. moreover, certain yellow spot OF dis
| tinct vision common to rs and the apes
| Is absent from their eyes.
The horse frequently seems to use his ewes
independently Of each other. undoubtedly the
| majority OF animals do SO; how then can We
ithaSNhe IN their case, Tor moment, such a
single picture OF a world as we in our waking
lnoniehts LOOK OUT upon! rev simple expert
menus wlth a cat WIN convince any one that she
Sa1not tingulsn a hand, with empty fingers,
neio toward her from one containing any not
TOO odorlferous edible. A bull makes no dis
Junction between the display of a red pocket
hanokercnie1 ana the shedding OF blood.
ana Whlie the animal may not, and in all
Proodpiii'y uoes not, REFER It's world to spaced
picture aha tnlhk IN visible images as We do,
mere Is no d0uot that IN other respects its seu-
satons may nave dehnltlon OF mental value
qu'e unknown TO the equivalent sense in our
selves we may carry faces TO the heavens
anu staiA ABOUT tne temporary lords Of the
Worid, Dut Ior AL tnat our noses are poor
things.
lie human nose is an apologize pimpIe
| compared with the magnificent organ of the
horse or dog. Our sense of smell is. when con-
trasted with our sight aud hearing. sipgulsrly
! Understanding. We can arrange sounds
INTO series; We know Z Is between and f; we
appreciate cctaves and harmonies. Similarly
We can put the coiors into order, decide upon
the amount OF blue in purple and get almost
TO emonon at the sight OF d white star in the
blue OF the summer twilight or Of the amber
sunlight glintng between the blades of grass.
But this serial arrangement, this sorting and
| selective choice, is entirely beyond our rutii-
mentary senses OF smell. To US the idea of the
scent Vi the violet being rich harmony or the
suggestion that the frying of onions Is a dis
cord or that patcnouh and the new mown hay
are pleasant things in different times aud KEYS
sounds utter nonsense. Our noses are entirely
too duh to effect the analysis necessary before
| scents can be distinguished az complex and
| sorted and recombined 80 to be made an ses-
thetic pleasure.
| But with the animals we have named all this
| dog is nose. 1t is probable therefore. that the
dog mind is based essentially on impressions
| of smell He perceives the crafty UIysses
through all dispuises that hide him e.,
bum.n detec.ion s,itfs hin, 80.
Inc stor;as - AZ r;thyI 80 e"snSu
1900. o' es VI 'ne ia'niui oog craving TO ms
ui"S'er picture anu ucklng Inc boots OF 1t,
| snow lamentabie want OF imagination-Sven
| Anyone VINO has ws tcbed . lost do, l.; a..
| straef nusr or If Let or,, - e AZ ,ne
tha animnI has onl,, a. '.s,.'' PeieeNe nat