The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-06-18
The Human
Side of the
News
BY EDWIN C. HILL

mankind is man." and then. again,
maybe it isn't. Cornell studies
Achilles, the pig, and his nervous
breakdown, and Homer, the goat,
also showing signs of wear and
tear in a world mainly Indifferent
to goats. Achilles, Homer, and
other nervous animals will have q
nice, secluded 100-acre farm, with a
lot of professors studying their re-
actions to this stimulus and that,
taking notes and trying to link
their behoviouS and SySmptomS in
some kind of a pattern of biologi-
cal intelligence.
The question of whether ami
mails can reason or not is still wide
open, and the professors will be
looking for an answer.
OF course, if Homer and Achilles
could read the papers, they would
be equally interested in knowing
whether man can reason, and they
might ask the professor lot OF dis
turbing questions. Animals often
seem quite human, and vice versa.
The beavers toss lazy or Solvenly
worker out of the tribe. Every
beaver tribe has a few untidy old
cadgers who amble around, mum
bling, Brother, can you slip me a
dime"
Tribal Conformity
The Cornell professors are parti-
cularly interested in that kind Of
lore. They know that animals i'm
pose discipline and tribal confor-
nifty; that they punish outlaws;
they reveal variants from the nor
NAL; they develop Societal patterS.
Even hens, as the American Mu-
scum of Natural History recently
has disclosed, have a system Of
social precedence, and rules as to
who may peck whom, as rigid as
the social mandates involved in
the Dolly Gam row at the White
House.
Efforts to understand human
conduct lead scientists more deep
ly and widely into the study of
animals. Intelligence on the planet
seems somehow to be all of a piece
It's something like that old parlor
game, in which, before your guests
arrive, you weave strings through
the house. Each with q prize at
the end for the one who can follow
the thread through all its wind
ings.
We may have to go clear back
to the amoeba before we can fol-
low all the way through and get q
clear idea of what human intelli-
gence is. That is the scientists
final objective. After all, this is
an approach to the study of man,
as they hope to get more light on
problems Of pSychiraty and mental
hygiene.
There is much disagreement
among authorities as to which are
the most intelligent animals. The
chimpanzee and the elephant are
generally rated at the top, but
pigs are coming into their own.
This Cornell study was preceded
by a pig seminar conducted by
Miss Pearl Gardner, Of the Cornell
Agricultural School. She gave the
pig . diploma cum laude, along
with the COW, and flunked the
horse ANONYMOUSLY. Miss Gard
ner said this talk of "horse sense"
was all bunk. She said the COW,
in logic, memory and ingenuity,
the three main factors of inteli-
gence, would rate a Phi Beta
Kappa over the horse any day.
The new study will be conducted
by DR.. Howard Scott Liddell, of
Cornell. formerly pupil Of the
late Ivan Pavloff, great Russian
psychologist. DR.. PaVloff was the
pioneer Of animal studies as an
approach to human psychology.
He was the originator of the be-
haviouristic psychology and the
originator Of the conditioned re-
flex" theory, later advanced in
this country by DR.. John Watson,
a professor who was later condi-
toned to money-making with 0
big advertising agency.
This Is primarily the school of
environment against heredity, an
argument as old as the freedom
of the will dispute. The behav-
tourists, of course, pick the en-
vironmental side of the debate,
and Cornell is banking on Homer
and Achilles for a lot of enlight-
eminent. 1t was the fact that de-
viationS from normal are often en-
tightening which led them to pick
a jittery pig and goat, instead of,
say, contented COW or a happy
horse.
In medicine, OF course, 1t is the
clinical studies which are often
most fruitful. The Germans have
made amazing animal studies.
About 40 years ago a German psy.
chologiSt wrote a penetrating
study, Die Spjiele der There.
which showed how the play Of
animals was rehearsal for adult
life, and how they applied diSci.
pine and punished delinquency,
now Towering at Cornell.
In Berlin in 1927, DR.. Karl
Krall demonstrated before a world
assembly of scientists a horse
which he had taught to solve a
problem in cube root. This, said
DR.. Krall, was nothing less than
telepathy. The horse couldn't do
all the figuring, but the doctor
was able to convey the answer
through the horses brain. and
the animal would paw out the so
luton.
Tha doctor concluded that +eIa.