114 Journal of Comparative Neurology 



The following sentence is especially interesting as compared 

 with the observations above referred to. " As all movements 

 have for their great end the preservation as well as the enjoy- 

 ment of the individual, and as contraction and relaxation take 

 place primarily to attain this end, a general expansiveness of 

 expression and gesture is allied with all the emotions which are 

 excited by impressions (or generated by ideas) of a beneficent 

 character, while a general exclusiveness or contraction of fea- 

 tures is allied with emotions excited by maleficent expressions; 

 the object of one class of movements being to court and receive, 

 and of the other to avoid and reject." '• Pleasurable and pain- 

 ful sensations from without determine, then, the form which the 

 muscles called into action assume ; the purpose being to protect 

 the organs. Similar muscular changes arise from the emotions, 

 according as they are pleasurable or painful, in consequence of 

 the harmony between mental and bodily acts " (Influence of 

 the Mind upon the Body, 1873, p. 152, et seij.) 



INSTANCES OF ERRONEOUS INFERENCE IN ANI- 

 MALS. 



It is no less instructive to observe the cases of incorrect men- 

 tal processes in the lower animals than those which we recognize 

 as intelligently accurate. The f ict that animals make mistakes 

 similar to those of which we are'guilty, implies a similarity in 

 the processes. 



Some years ago it was our custom to drive a cow from her 

 pasture into the stable each evening at sunset. On one occasion 

 the horizontal rays of the sun passing through the opening for a 

 rail shot a bar of yellow light athwart the opening about breast 

 high. On reaching the door, eager for the expected food, the 

 cow stopped short and lowered her head. The intense beam 

 bore an unmistakable resemblance to a fresh pine bar closing the 

 opening. In spite of repeated inducements a tercrn added to the 

 odor of the manger the beast declared her inability to jump 

 over the obstacle without striking the top of the low door. We 

 appealed to the material sanctions of authority with such effect 

 that in sheer desperation she gathered her feet and her forces and 

 made a frantic lunge over the supposed bar which offered no re 

 sistance. Safely past the obstacle, she turned in grave astonish- 

 ment at her own prowess and seemed completely mystified at the 

 ease with which she had vaulted over the bar which still re- 

 mained in its place. 



