Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-09-17
Animal Intelligence.

Many animals provide against in
clement weather and the contingency
Of want by storing food and build
ing places of abode and refuge, Sc
curing themselves against want,
cold, storms and their enemies.-
They choose such food as is best
suited to them with the same degree
OF certainty that nature shows in di-
gesting it, and reject improper or in
furious articles of food with greater
sagacity than that afforded by con-
scious intelligence. So, likewise, in
protecting themselves against NOR
bific causes, as infection, they in
stinctively resort to such measures
as science has shown to be the most
efficacious; namely, cleanliness
They show remarkable degree of
clairvoyance as to death, time of de-
livery of their young, weaving, etc.
"a kind of foreseeing in which man
is deficient, writes DIR. d. A. Cor
don, in New York Medical Times
Dogs and cats, suffering from dis
ordered stomach, eat certain grasses,
which have the effect of purging aud
vomiting. The dog also eats fat
with avidity when in need Of purga-
ton, but abstains from 1t in his nor
NAL conditions. The horse will eat
fat for the same purpose, and earth,
coal dust, ETC., when suffering from
worms. Cattle seek certain herbs
when medicinal herbs, such as
they would not eat when WE'LL
Horses and other animals, when suf-
fering from chronic rheumatism,
expose themselves to the sun. Dogs
and other animals seek water to
battle their wounded limbs.
M. Delaunay, French writer, has
recorded many instances of instinct
i've therapeutics among the lower
animals when suffering from fever,
Infection, wounds, etc. He relates
a case of a dog that, on being stung
by viper, held the part in running
water for days, until it finally re-
covered. He instances also the case
of dog that was badly injured by
being run over by carriage, and
that remained lying in brook dur
ing three weeks. The animal re-
covered.
A terrier was severely wounded
from the light and heat, and ate a
light, abstemious diet. The wounded
eye was treated with spittle applied
by itself by means of its paw, which
it licked on its upper surface, and
then applied it to the wound. This
it did repeatedly until the wound
healed. The cat shows similar sa-
gacity in treating wounds. Nj. De-
launay relates instances in which
this animal, which, in its normal
state exhibits dread of water, when
wounded had sought the stream, in
which to bathe and irrigate the
wounded part.
The same is true of sayages, but
slightly removed in the scale of be-
ing from the animal. The chimpan-
zee, when wounded, arrests bleeding
by compression, and dresses the part
with leaves and grasses. L0w-bred
savages dress their wounds in water,
lie in running water, abstain from
food, and drink nothing but water
when suffering from fever. When
infectious fevers, as smallpox, break
out in their camp, the camp, with
all its appurtenances, is burned, and
its inhabitants removed to fresher
and more wholesome quarters.
These and other similar psychical
phenomena, showing unconscious
willing to the. fulfillment of a con-
scious end, are put by the psycholo-
gist in the category of consensual
impulses, pa phrase which should
deceive no one, since, in whatever
pnraseology the phenomena may be
disguised, their psychical origin and
character remain to proclaim to us a
most wonderful and awe-inspiring
truth; namely, that Mind is the ge.
MUS of the world, tho power that
designs, moulds into form and being
and determines the destiny of al
things.