498 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing series according to the degree of intelligence manifested by their 

 most gifted members : 



1. JBimana, higher man only, however, 



2. Quadrumana, especially the larger anthropoid apes. 



3. Carnivora, including especially the dog and cat. 



4. Proboscidia, the elephant. 



5. Ungulata, especially the horse, mule, and ass. 



6. Modentia, especially the beaver and rat. 



Apparently the elephant has always been regarded as an animal of 

 third or fourth rate intelligence, as compared with common domestic 

 animals and the great apes. Cuvier, in his " Regne Animal," records 

 his conviction that in sagacity the elephant in no way excels the dog, 

 and some other species of carnivora. Sir Emerson Tennent, even after 

 a careful study of the elephant, is disposed to award the palm for men- 

 tal superiority to the dog, but he hastens to add, " not from any ex- 

 cess of natural capacity, but from the higher degree of development 

 consequent on his more intimate domestication and association with 

 man." 



Surprising as these opinions may seem in the light of certain facts 

 to be presently adduced, much more surprising is the opinion of Mr. 

 G. P. Sanderson, who has been more intimately associated w T ith ele- 

 phants than any man living. After several years' continuous service, 

 entirely devoted to the capture of wild herds and their management 

 while under training in captivity, he writes as follows of the Indian 

 elephant : 



" Its reasoning faculties are undoubtedly far below those of the 

 dog, and possibly of other animals ; and in matters beyond the range of 

 its daily experience it evinces no special discernment. While quick 

 at comprehending anything sought to be taught to it, the elephant is 

 decidedly wanting in originality." 



An opinion from such an authority is entitled to great weight in a 

 consideration of the entire subject, and it is possible that Sanderson's 

 estimate of the elephant's powers of original reasoning is correct ; but 

 in the mind of the writer there is no question of the elephant's general 

 intellectual superiority over all other animals, except higher man. 

 More than this, I believe that the hitherto universal failure to recog- 

 nize this fact has been a real loss to the student of psychology. 



While the subject-matter of this article has been drawn almost 

 wholly from observations of the Indian, or Asiatic, elephant both in a 

 wild state and under various conditions of captivity, there is no evidence 

 "whatever to prove that, according to an idea which has quite generally 

 prevailed, the African elephant is less intelligent and tractable than 

 his East Indian congener. While many intelligent people have been 

 led to believe that Africanus can not be trained to service at all, 

 actual proof of his intellectual inferiority is wholly wanting, and there 

 is no good reason for believing that any can be found. Whenever it 



