THE WORLD OF LIVING ORGANISMS 177 



MODERN ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY 



In recent years, since the appearance of the talking horse 

 of Elberfeld, animal psychology has struck out new lines, 

 and these are so worthy of consideration that we cannot pass 

 them by unnoticed. 



The statement that the psyche of animals contains within 

 it this sensation or that, does not concern biology. It is for 

 the psychologists to picture the animal soul as they think 

 fit. The biologist must concern himself solely with such 

 manifestations by animals as are perceptible by the observer ; 

 and from these he must draw conclusions as to the organisa- 

 tion. 



But modern psychology affirms that all animals, or at 

 least all the higher animals, have a human intelligence, which 

 is not expressed simply because the bodily organisation sets 

 limits to it. If we succeed in getting an animal to produce a 

 suitable sign-language by means of its organs, we can converse 

 with it as with human beings. 



This view should undermine the opinions held hitherto in 

 comparative psychology, which infer the nature of the psyche 

 from that of the organisation. 



Biology is not directly affected by these heated polemics ; 

 as the science of the organisation itself, it can calmly await the 

 outcome of the dispute. 



