CHAPTER XIX 



THE RELATION OF HIGHER ANIMALS TO MAN 



In zoological studies when the term ''higher animal" is 

 used, this is generally understood to be synonymous with one 

 of the higher mammals, or at least with one of the higher verte- 

 brates. Yet were we to study attentively a rabbit, a pig, a 

 sheep, even a cat, alongside a lobster, a spider, a bee, or an ant, 

 as to their movements, life relations, and successful survival 

 as species or groups, a decided hesitancy might be felt in de- 

 termining whether the former or the latter four deserved 

 better the appellation "higher animal." 



In the present chapter we propose to analyze and compare 

 the structural details and life phenomena of groups of animals 

 which, while apart — ^often widely so — in the zoological scale, 

 all deserve to rank in a certain biological sense as "higher 

 animals." 



In immediately preceding chapters an effort has been made 

 to trace the main line of animal advance that has culminated 

 in man. But, while man represents the climax of organic evo- 

 lution, it can truly be said that at least four, possibly six, other 

 lines of marked advance are made from widely apart centers of 

 origin. These all show an advancing bio-cognitic complexity 

 and alertness that run parallel with a rapidly evolving cogitic 

 perceptive response that has been superadded to the other 

 two. 



But, in trying to reach just conclusions here, human preju- 

 dice and hereditary bias are apt to sway the mind powerfully. 

 For unless a living object conforms to certain preconceived 

 notions of what we regard as a "higher animal" the evidence 

 may be somewhat scantily weighed. In this connection Gaskell 

 in weighing such evidence has truly written : "The law of progress 

 is this: The race is not to the swift, nor to the strong, but to 



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