COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 659 



useful results in this field. With regard to the so-called " homing in- 

 stinct," it has been noticed that savage or semi-savage man possesses 

 a power of finding his way in the trackless forest by more accurate 

 observation than that of which the civilized man seems capable. While 

 this throws light upon the case of the lower animals, it does but very 

 inadequately explain it. It may turn out that both of these puzzles 

 are susceptible of simple explanation ; but at present they strike me 

 as rather belonging to that class of psychic phenomena the meaning 

 of which can be but inadequately understood by man, owing to his 

 not possessing the requisite faculties or those faculties in sufficiently 

 powerful or acute development. The performances of a Shakespeare 

 and Scott in literature, or a Beethoven in music, to the mass of men, 

 must be but imperfectly understood in any proper sense of realization. 

 Probably these sons of genius could have given little account of the 

 " manner of it " themselves. We might hesitate to call such facul- 

 ties as the above in the lower animals genius, or to acknowledge any 

 kinship ; but genius among men is often as limited and as disasso- 

 ciated with general mental power as are certain marvelous faculties 

 in the lower animals. It may be that migration is accomplished by 

 means of some forms of acute sensation, according to which the ani- 

 mal acts more or less blindly. Plainly, no mere restless impulse can 

 account for the performance, though it may initiate it. These and 

 many other problems are before us ; and, like most recondite prob- 

 lems, they will require the labors of many, each bringing his little for 

 their solution. But is it not worth while ? Man can not live by bread 

 alone. We hunger for completeness in our knowledge and harmony 

 in our philosophy. But, apart from this philosophical satisfaction, it 

 can not but prove for the interests both of man and the lower animals 

 that the latter should be better understood. 



Belonging, as most of you do, to the veterinary profession, or, as I 

 should prefer to call it, the profession of comparative medicine, either 

 as students or as practitioners and teachers, the more you comprehend 

 the mental workings and modes of expression of your patients, the 

 more successfully must you arrive at an accurate knowledge of their 

 symptoms, and so be the better prepared to relieve the suffering among 

 them, and in so doing also advance man's material interests. To you, 

 at the present time, must we especially look for diffusing more en- 

 lightened and humane views, views worthy of this renowned school 

 of comparative medicine, which many of you have come so far to at- 

 tend. It will be for you to intervene in cases of public panic like that 

 witnessed in connection with the recent hydrophobia scare ; reassure 

 the public mind, and protect our fellow-creatures of the lower ranks 

 from needless molestation. There is probably no class of men whose 

 daily life-work gives them so large an opportunity for at the same 

 time acquiring and diffusing truer views in regard to the lower animals. 

 Your enthusiasm and success during the first year of our existence as 



