The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-19
INSTINCT AND REASON.
OR. Sanford Tells about His Experiments
With Rats in Various Ways.

Lrs SANFORD Tells Rbout His experiments
With Rats in Various Ways.
DR.. Sanford spoke on Instinct and
reason" and began his lecture with a
resume of Mondays talk He said in
part: The box into which the rats had
TO burrow through sawdust gave the
following times on successive trials:
Ninety minutes, first trial; IS minutes,
second trial; 21a minutes, the third
trial, and at the 18th trial he went in
| in 30 seconds.
would be very different After the first
time he would go at once to the right
| place. Another set of rats made the
entrance in 30 minutes first time
At the fifth day the association of
| digging in che place did not appear.
On the 18th day they went to work at
once. In the experiments with the other
box, the time began with 10 minutes
and came down to 10 seconds. At first
there was something of a tendency in
| the rats to dig. The 18th trial took 10
seconds; 18th, 90 and 18th, IS. In 16 and
IL they were very hungry and went at
1t bull headed without stopping to re-
member. One rat got much more skill
full than the others, and the other rats
would depend on him going in first and
| finally lost interest in trying to find
the way in. If the rat has been success
| ful in more than one way there seems
TO be trouble in selecting the best way.
Both boxes were then put in to see
If they were able to discriminate, and
1t was found that the smsrtest rat was
able to tell the difference. 1t seemed
| that they initiated similar activities
| but did not seem to initiate intelligent
ly. The individual differences were
marked. In another test Of memory,
the maternal instinct In defense of the
young was tried. The experimenter
would offer his hand to the rat and then
| snap the rat with his finger The rat
showed signs of memory by drawing
back after the first trial, though the
maternal instinct was so strong some
| times as to make her risk the blow.
| The times for the maze, in which the
rat had to follow a tortuous path, were,
| for the first trial, 13 minutes; second. 2
minutes; third, 4 minutes. The 10th
| trial was taken after two weeks and il
took two minutes, while the 9Th trial
| took only 80 seconds. After the first
trial, in each case the rats were left
| free in the maze over night, giving
| them plenty of time to explore. The
! question is how much We're they helped
| by smell to follow the trail after the
| first trial? There was no evidence from
their behavior that they were follow
| ing by smell; then they would go into
| blind alleys and make mistakes in the
| turns, and after their wanderings. ma
turally all paths had the same odor.
| On first entry the rats blunder but
tend not to repeat the blunders, or not
very often. They try. all the possible
| ties and avoid those that are wrong.
| The way they find their path Is prob
| ably the same as when we go ur
| familiar stairs in the dark, or they
may have visual recoliections. There is
no reason to think that there is more
mental capacity in the rat than the
capacity of forming habits These rats
have strong tendency to nest build
ing, and carry off the strips of paper
which fastened the door,
| Wherein do animal minds differ from
human minds? shall confine myself
to the highest forms of domestic ami
mails. In the first place we must re-
| member that we have very much In
| common with animals, and there are
many tracts on which we think as they
| DO. They have sensations perceptions
feelings, activities as we have. They
differ somewhat in sensation and per-
| ception. The dog is better off than us
IN his smell. and we see better thar
the dog. Memory and association is
very evident from the experiments
mentioned. Their action in learning is
much Ike ours, though they are not
| able to be told how to do things and
do not seem to be able to be shown.
Men have the perception Of relations,