THE UNIQUE MAMMAL 31 



convincing evidence that this is so is found in the history of the 

 science of physiology itself. For what that history shows is that 

 the overwhelmingly greatest part of our knowledge of human 

 physiology has been initiated from experiments made on infra- 

 human mammals. In every medical school today the funda- 

 mentals of physiology are demonstrated to the students from 

 the bodies of dogs. And the information so gained is found to be 

 completely reliable and trustworthy in the practice of the art and 

 science of medicine when applied in the relief of human 

 suffering. 



If the essentials of man's physiology are identical with those 

 of mammalian physiology in general, it is reasonably to be ex- 

 pected that much of his behavior will be found upon analysis 

 to be like that of other mammals in similar or equivalent situa- 

 tions. This is in fact so. A host of examples might be given in 

 proof. Books could be, and have been, written to this end. But 

 again taking a broad view, the prime significance of the fact that 

 a large part of human behavior is just animal behavior is per- 

 haps best seen in the way this fact has come to be the very 

 foundation stone of the most advanced modern psychiatric 

 thinking and action in the treatment and prevention of mental 

 disease, under the influence of Freud and with the rise of psy- 

 chobiology. The adequate recognition of the community between 

 man and the lower animals over great ranges of their psychology 

 and behavior, and the practical implementation of this recogni- 

 tion to therapeutic uses, are relatively recent developments. But 

 the idea itself is at least as old as Aristotle. For it is implicit in the 

 central thesis of his Psychology ^ which was that life and 

 mentality were to be regarded as identical terms. 



G. Stanley Hall in 1920 (Preface to Freud^s General Intro- 

 duction to Psychanalysis^ drew an interesting comparison be- 

 tween Wundt and Freud. Until the appearance of the latter 

 upon the scientific scene Wundt had been for a long time the 

 dominant world figure in psychology. There is perhaps no better 

 way to get a realization, that strikes home with almost shocking 

 force, of the profound change that has come over all thinking 



