SOME ANALOGIES AND HOMOLOGIES. 99 



been fanciful, and have been forced to the conclusion that these 

 l^lants possess not only nervous ganglionic centers in their leaves, 

 but cords of communication running even to the stem, where 

 possibly there may be the rudiments of a spinal cord communi- 

 cating, may be, with other ganglia in the roots, the totality of 

 which would represent a brain. Nuclei and tracts of special sen- 

 sations (unless they be special plant sensations), apparently, they 

 do not possess I mean such sensations as sight and hearing. 

 They are, to some extent, sensitive to a breath of wind when no 

 actual contact takes place. 



Men are wise in their generation the wisdon of man is indeed 

 a remarkable trait of the creature but the weather wisdom and 

 the immigration wisdom of birds are traits equally remarkable. 

 If the bird lore is due to the accumulated experience of the race, 

 just so much can be said also about the wisdom of man. 



Man loves alcohol; man includes the teetotaler who loves 

 alcohol also, but who most wisely refrains, as he doubts his own 

 powers of resistance to excess. Here, possibly, there is a gulf be- 

 tween man and the lower animals. The lower creatures, as far as 

 I know, never refrain from alcohol in excess, if they can get it. 

 Many tales have been told of alcoholism in the lower animals, none 

 of moderate drinking, if the alcohol were available; therefore, 

 perhaps, the only great difference between man and the lower ani- 

 mals is that man may be a moderate alcoholist. Monkeys are 

 peculiarly fond of arrack and such stuff. Possibly, therefore, our 

 own love of spirits is simply an unfortunate hereditary ancestral 

 trait. 



Comparisons are at the best odious; however, the most ten- 

 der of us can always console himself by remembering that 

 the comparison between man and animals and plants is only 

 reasonable when we descend, as far as man is concerned, to the 

 very lowest species of humanity, and even then he has to be 

 compared with the highest type of the creatures below him. 

 Therefore, indeed, what magnificent creatures we are or, any- 

 how, might be ! 



I have seen dogs and, I think, other animals gazing abstract- 

 edly at and evidently following something. They were troubled, 

 sometimes whining, or positively crouching in awe or dread. 

 Such behavior in a dog during the course of a long life is not un- 

 common, and it would be ridiculous to declare all such dogs to 

 be rabeitic. I believe other animals suffer from illusions. I know 

 two men with whom I have spoken, and who are reasoning, ra- 

 tional beings, and otherwise very practical, who are able to make 

 a chair waltz round the room or go up-stairs without in any way, 

 directly or indirectly, having contact with it. Having started the 

 chair on its career, it is kept going by mere suggestion. I ques- 



