52 Kansas Academy of Science. 



have made, however, all three of the above determinations: namely, moisture, oleo- 

 resin (evaporated ethereal extract), and ash. In some cases these three data, taken 

 together, are necessary in determining values. 



According to Mr. Bell, Ame7-ican Journal of Pharmacy, Oct. 1888, the appear- 

 ance of the evaporated ethereal extract must be carefully noted, as it affords an ex- 

 cellent clue to possible adulteration. It should be dry, somewhat scaly, and the resin 

 should show numerous projecting crystals of piperine. If it has a dark, oily appear- 

 ance and is mostly amorphous, adulteration is indicated. 



I may add that it is not only a dai^k coloration of the residue that indicates adul- 

 teration, but if the color is of a very reddish hue in thin layers, the indication is, 

 presence of capsicum, (added, doubtless, to give pungency to the inert adulterant.) 



The result of the examination is as follows: 



Moisture. Resin and piperine. Ash. 



No. 1 10.43 4.6 5.5 



No. 2 10.34 10.3 2.5 



No. 3 14.25 7.3 2. 



No. 4 9.75 7.9 5. 



No. 5 Lost. 5.1 1.5 



No. 6 11.20 7.8 7. 



No. 7 7.10 7.2 2.5 



No. 8 11.25 4.9 2.5 



No. 9 10.78 6.6 3. 



No. 10 9.80 5.9 3. 



■ In conclusion, I would say that a physical examination is quite essential to a sat- 

 isfactory analysis of pepper. This I have not as yet made, because I have yet to 

 select the adulterated specimens of other samples, and then, by microscopic exam- 

 ination, determine the kind of adulterants used. This can be done very largely by 

 physical examination. 



ANIMAL ETHICS. 



BY A. H. THOMPSON, TOPEKA, KANSAS. 



The following brief contribution to the study of animal ethics, comparative eth- 

 ics, or morals among animals, is submitted without comment upon the more elabo- 

 rate studies of the subject that may have been made by the masters in natural science, 

 but is presented merely as amateur browsings in a very interesting field of psycho- 

 logical research. 



At the outset we are met by the query : Do animals possess a morality at all ? 

 Do they ever distinguish between right and wrong, between justice and injustice, 

 kindness and cruelty, honesty and dishonesty, vice and virtue, and other moral at- 

 tributes, among and between themselves ? Do they have any respect for the rights 

 of others ? Do they ever attempt to control their own selfish impulses for the good 

 of others, or for the good of an animal community? Let us make a study of their 

 moral manifestations, and endeavor to obtain an answer to these queries. 



A great difficulty confronts us at the beginning of our investigations by the ap- 

 parently complete absence of similarity or sympathy between the mental processes 

 and reasoning actions of the lower animals and of man. Not only is the nervous or- 

 ganization of man of a much higher grade, and his mental powers consequently 

 much superior, but the methods of his mind are of a very different order. Both in 

 quantity and quality of psychic processes he varies infinitely from the other animals 

 around him, so that he has little in common with them. But yet his mind, with his 

 nervous organization and his physical body, must have ascended through ages of 

 animal ancestry to its present supreme position. The process of evolution has pro- 



