The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-12-16
POPULAR APoLoeETlcs.
Adapted From the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev. James
F. Watcher.
LII. Animal intelligence.

.sOf course not as hlShlX developed as
ours They understand so many
things and are really smart in their
way. They consider and calculate and
look out for their advantage. A dog
can even learn to go shopping.
Answer: What. dogs. and all other
animals have is nothing but sense
perception; but understanding or rea-
son means intellectual or spiritual per
ception, and between these two kinds
of perception there is as great and an
essential difference as between mat
ter and spirit.
The dog knows only the individual,
the present bounded by space and
time, whose concrete image (phan-
tasm), is only reproduced by the
sensory memory, and according to the
laws of the association of images these
are combined with other new sense
perceptions. But that is not yet think
ing. Our reason goes essentially fur
Their: 1t perceives the relations of
things to one another, cause and effect,
. purpose and means, the essential and
non-essential; it forms immaterial or
spiritual distractions, comparisons,
judgments, conclusions, and man ar
ranges his acts accordingly.
If dog had only a small amount Of
This intellectual perception, he would
perceive that man gets meat for
money, and he could act accordingly
lie would for example, seize a coin,
which he might find, would hide it or
even steal it from his master, to use it
for that purpose. He would then go
with the coin in his mouth to the
butcher, lay it on the counter, point
with his paw to a specially fine sausage
and would give the butcher a knowing
glance or bark to let him know his in
tention.
To be sure, a dog can be trained to
90 to a certain butcher with basket
in which money is placed, to get meat
regularly. That only shows that by
training man can impress mechanical
" the conclusions of his reason on the
s. sensory memory of the animal; but it
shows, too, in a most striking manner
that the animal has no reason of its
cially smart dog, which has often gone
on such errands for his master, would
have found out the evident connection
between money and meat and would
have acted of his own accord in his
own interest. But no dog does that
and no other animal, either, in spite OF
the opportunity of thousands of years
U Of intercourse with man to develop his
S0-caifed fffteffect. He does not do 1t
because he can not, and he can not be-
cause he can only combine concrete
sensory images according to the laws
of instructive associations of images
without, however, understanding their
connection, without raising himself to
consciousness, in short, because he has
only sensory and no intellectual pow
ers." (Wasman, s. J. Instinkt und In
telligenz Qnstinct and Intelligence, p
79).
Father Wasmann gives an example
in the above quoted book (p. 1OO-1Ol)t
of the limits of dogs intelligence.
poodle Van was a specially smart
animal. Lubbock, his master, wanted
to teach him to think and gave him
instruction in reading. He printed
food in large letters on tablet winch
the dog was to get when he was hungry
and out when he wanted to take
walk, and other such things which
come within the compass of dogs in
telligence' He was successful with q
small number of words after long and
laborious training. The concrete com
bination of the sound-perception food
with the sight-perception of definite
series of letters gradually impressed it
self on the sensory memory OF the
poodle just as the experience that
when his master said food he would
be fed. According to the laws of that
sensory association of images, which
Prof. Wundt ca great psychologist and
philosopher, calls 'touch-associatlon,
the sensation of hunger reproduces In
the dog soul that tablet containing the
word food We have, therefore, with
our smart poodle Van the combinations
OF certain sensory pictures with Ger
tain affects resting on experience; we
have, moreover, phonetic and graphic
symbols, the elements of true phonetic
and written language. If the dog
had had intelligence, if only a
limited dog intelligence given these
means of language, he would have had
to develop it and stimulate it to inde
pendent acts. But in spite OF that
nothing of the kind happened. The
dog remained at standstill where the
human intelligence of his teacher had
left him, having impressed mechani'
cally the sensory combinations OF
images without developing them him
self. 1t never occurred to him to
teach his friend, Patience, lapdog,
language which he had learned; this
friend herself again never got the idea
to learn from Van the use of the 1000,
tablet when she was hungry, though
she had often seen, as Mr.. Lubbock
reports, that Van got food when he
fetched the tablet Patience never
had a thought of the connection be-
tween the food and the tablet, and
Van never told her. Why? For an
unbiased psychologist the answer can
only be: Because neither Van nor Pa
thence had their own intelligence
(reason), but only their master and
teacher, Sir John Lubbock"
We are told now and then really as
tonishing stories about animal intelli-
Oopco hut which On nlocoT iOypSti0a-