HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



73 



MIND AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



By Dr. P. QUIN KEEGAN. 



t£^P{\ 



N reference to some 

 notes that have 

 recently appeared 

 in Science-Gos- 

 sip relative to 

 reason and in- 

 stinct, perhaps it 

 may be proper to 

 endeavour to 

 sketch and eluci- 

 date as clearly as 

 possible the actual 

 constitution or 

 condition of some 

 of the higher types 

 of mind among 

 the lower animals. 

 That many of these 

 creatures possess 

 exceedingly 

 powerful and 

 efficient senses, such as sight, hearing and smell, and, 

 in a less degree, taste and general touch or sensibility, 

 there can be no doubt. And there are strong 

 grounds to conclude, that their more highly-endowed 

 senses not only enable them to detect sensible 

 qualities and effects of sight, sound, and smell, of 

 which we are wholly ignorant, but also furnish them 

 with a richer stock of what have been styled acquired 

 perceptions. But these vigorous faculties convey a 

 knowledge of objects in the concrete only. When, 

 for instance, a dog smells or sees a piece of meat or 

 other food, he does not recognise it as a piece of 

 meat, &c. He does not know it by that or by any 

 other name, he could not describe it as such : his 

 mind does not expand to or embrace the general 

 notion of " meat." He simply views it as this parti- 

 cular piece of edible matter, having a certain shape, 

 colour, and smell, which his organism recognises as 

 proceeding from something fitted for diet ; and most 

 probably every new piece of meat that is presented to 

 his nostrils has to undergo the same process of sniffing, 

 &c, before it is swallowed. There is no necessary 

 No. 220.— April 18S3. 



connection, through memory or relation, between 

 different particles of food offered to him at different 

 times. 



Moreover, the lower animals are endowed with the 

 faculties of memory, reproduction and imagination 

 (i.e. the imaging power of memory) ; but these powers 

 are exercised only upon concrete objects of thought. 

 The power of association of ideas is extremely 

 vigorously developed among such creatures as the 

 dog and cat ; but the associated ideas generally come 

 up according to the law of contiguity, seldom or pro- 

 bably never according to the law of correlation. A dog 

 in his dreams, for instance, recognises by his barking 

 and growling some memorial of a strictly concrete 

 object previously known and experienced. Man, on 

 the other hand, can remember or reproduce general 

 notions or concepts, as well as concrete notions, i.e. 

 we can consider and reflect upon the general notion 

 of flower, bird, &c, as well as consider or reflect upon 

 any particular flower or bird. Brutes have little or 

 no self-consciousness, and their conscious life is, for 

 the foregoing reasons, concerned chiefly with the 

 concrete. The conscious life of man, on the other 

 hand, is more frequently exercised upon general 

 notions. This is a very important and fundamental 

 difference ; and it results therefrom, that the lower 

 animals understand proper names only, and not 

 common names. A dog can easily be taught to know 

 the name of his master or his own name ; but you 

 might thunder the word fish a thousand times into a 

 cat's ear and she would certainly hear what you said, 

 but she would not understand what you meant. 

 "Dogs," says Bowen, "can even be taught to know the 

 names of particular places and buildings, so that they 

 can understand and obey when they are told to go to 

 the barn, the river, or the house. But it is always 

 the particular barn, or other object, with which they 

 have been taught to associate this sound or significant 

 gesture as its proper name. Carry the animal to a 

 distant place, near which may be a set of correspond- 

 ing objects, and then tell him to go to the barn or 

 the river, and he will not understand the command as 

 applying to the new set of objects, but will imme- 



