436 NOTES AND COMMENTS [june 1899 



simple " reflex-machines," or automata, as Descartes suggested ; but the 

 facts are far otherwise, as such works as those of Professors Lloyd 

 Morgan and Groos (to cite two familiar names) clearly show. The 

 truth is that iu avoiding an imaginary Scylla, the author has been 

 caught in a real Charybdis of absurd anthropomorphism. He reads the 

 man into the beast, and while his generosity touches our emotions, our 

 fondness for animals, it leaves on our intelligence an impression of the 

 grotesque. Let us illustrate " the man in the beast." " On one 

 occasion I made some medusae tipsy, and their drunken gravity as they 

 rolled and staggered through the water in pursuit of the light was as 

 sorrowful as it was instructive ; their actions in this respect were those 

 of intoxicated men." He has been led to believe that " minute 

 microscopic organisms have their pastimes and moments of simple 

 amusement. . . . They seemed to be engaged in a game of tag." On 

 another occasion he observed a meeting of two snails who " bowed 

 several times in courtly salutation." And so on the story goes. 



The author " does not claim infallibility " ; he " believes, however, 

 that future investigation will prove the verity of every proposition 

 that is advanced in this book. These propositions have been formu- 

 lated only after a twenty years' study of biology in all of its phases." 

 We are sorry to be compelled to point out to an ingenuous public that 

 the author does not really know what he is talking about. " The 

 microscope shows," he says, " that these animals have notochords, 

 nervous systems, and ganglia, or brains. With a one-sixteenth objective, 

 and an achromatic light-condenser, I have been able to differentiate 

 the gray matter in the brain of an ant, and even on two occasions to 

 bring out the cells and filaments of the cortex." This was an achieve- 

 ment, but why drag in the notochord — a piece of skeleton ! Dr. Weir 

 believes that he is the first to claim the sensual importance of tinctu- 

 mutation [colour-change], and the sense of direction or the " homing- 

 sense " ; he is also the first to claim that instinct is " heredity under 

 a special name." He is also the author of the following statement of 

 his position, which it would be unfair to omit : — " Ego-knowledge, while 

 undoubtedly present in some of the higher animals, such as the clog, 

 monkey, horse, cat, etc., is not a factor in the psychical make-up of 

 any of the lower animals (insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc.). But 

 consciousness, so far as volition or choice is concerned, enters into 

 the psychos of animals exceedingly low in the scale of animal life." 

 With this we bid farewell to a work which is appropriately called 

 " The Dawn of Reason." 



