68 Animal Intelligence 



by accident. They certainly do.. In this investigation 

 choice was made of the intelligent performances described 

 by Romanes in the following passages. I shall quote at 

 some length because these passages give an admirable 

 illustration of an attitude of investigation which this re- 

 search will, I hope, render impossible for any scientist in 

 the future. Speaking of the general intelligence of cats, 

 Romanes says : 



"Thus, for instance, while I have only heard of one solitary 

 case ... of a dog which, without tuition, divined the use of a 

 thumb latch so as to open a closed door by jumping on the handle 

 and depressing the thumb-piece, I have received some half- 

 dozen instances of this display of intelligence on the part of 

 cats. These instances are all such precise repetitions of one 

 another that I conclude the fact to be one of tolerably ordinary 

 occurrence among cats, while it is certainly rare among dogs. 

 I may add that my own coachman once had a cat which, cer- 

 tainly without tuition, learnt thus to open a door that led into 

 the stables from a yard into which looked some of the windows 

 of the house. Standing at these windows when the cat did not 

 see me, I have many times witnessed her modus operandi. 

 Walking up to the door with a most matter-of-course kind of air, 

 she used to spring at the half hoop handle just below the thumb 

 latch. Holding on to the bottom of this half-hoop with one 

 fore paw, she then raised the other to the thumb piece, and 

 while depressing the latter finally with her hind legs scratched 

 and pushed the door posts so as to open the door. . . . 



"Of course in all such cases the cats must have previously 

 observed that the doors are opened by persons placing their 

 hands upon the handles and, having observed this, the animals 

 act by what may be strictly termed rational imitation. But 

 it should be observed that the process as a whole is something 

 more than imitative. For not only would observation alone be 

 scarcely enough (within any limits of thoughtful reflection that 



