ioo The Scottish Naturalist. 



Stornoway cock, I would direct the attention of readers to the 

 desirability of collecting and publishing all properly certified 

 instances of deliberation or intention in self-destruction by 

 animals. 



The Editor of another Quarterly, devoted to Natural History, 

 himself a well-known Naturalist, remarked that the only thing 

 singular in the case of the dog "Mum" (p. 61) is its name. 

 He asserted that he himself had seen Epilepsy in a Dog; and 

 that the mental qualities described in " Mum's" case are common 

 to dogs in general, as well as to other animals. Now there are 

 other kinds of " fits " in dogs than those of an Epileptic charac- 

 ter, and only the experienced scientific Veterinarian, or the 

 Physician who has had a special experience of this class of 

 motor nervous diseases, can be trusted to distinguish between 

 real and spurious Epilepsy. In " Mum" the Epilepsy was vouched 

 for by a Physician whose experience of that disease in man 

 possibly far transcends that of any one of our best Veterinarians 

 in other animals. Again, it is among the main objects of these 

 " Illustrations " to shew, on the one hand, how difficult it is to 

 obtain well-authenticated instances of the exercise of pure 

 Reason in the lower animals, and on the other, to point out 

 the value of cases that are properly established. My object is 

 to exemplify the influence of common reason in the common 

 incidents or affairs of animal life. It is not enough for an 

 objector to say — this or that mental quality is " common." It 

 does not follow that the alleged possession of any given mental 

 aptitude has been established as a fact — generally accepted as 

 such. It is desirable to prove its commonness, as well as the 

 significance of its commonness, and to explain its common 

 operation ; in reference to which a single well-observed and 

 properly recorded case, with its analysis, is worth endless mere 

 unsupported assertions — affirmative or negative. The Editor in 

 question is probably quite unprepared to explain, in the case of 

 " Mum," for example, how it, being blind, knew when or whether 

 a particular person was in its vicinity ; a circumstance I have 

 myself observed in the case of an old blind cat, though I do not 

 profess myself able to explain it. It may be that hearing, or smell, 

 or some additional sense, of which we know nothing (albeit 

 our Editor friend appeared to regard such phenomena as too 

 u common " to deserve record), leads to or is the basis of this 

 species of discrimination in animals. But the subject is as 

 interesting and as much an unsolved problem as is Way-finding 



