X.] IN ANIMALS AND MAN, ^^ 



I believe it to he much the same with the musical sense and the 

 artistic faculty in general. This faculty is, as it were, the mental 

 hand with which we play on our emotional nature, — a hand not 

 shaped for this purpose, not due to the necessity for the enjoy- 

 ment of music, but owing its origin to entirely different require- 

 ments. 



I will give more detailed evidence in support of this view. 

 Our musical organization consists of two parts : — first, the 

 auditory organ proper, viz. the outer, middle, and inner ear, 

 by which the various sounds become nervous stimuli, each 

 producing its corresponding nerve-impulse : secondly, that 

 part of the brain which transforms the impulses conveyed to 

 it by the auditory nerve into sensations of sound ; this is the 

 auditory centre of our brain. 



The first part of this twofold organ, the auditory organ proper, 

 is, so far as we know, not much higher in organization than 

 that of many animals, and it does not possess any peculiarity of 

 construction which would justify us in the assumption that the 

 power oi hearing music is greater than in animals. The higher 

 animals can certainly hear music : the behaviour of my cat is 

 sufficient evidence for this, for she comes near whenever the 

 piano is plaj^ed and sits quietly near the performer, sometimes 

 jumping up into his lap or even upon the keyboard of the 

 instrument. I know of a dog, kept by a family in Berlin, which 

 always approached when music was played, often coming from 

 distant rooms and opening the doors with his paw. I hear, on 

 good authority, of a dog which generally stayed at home, but 

 wandered about every now and then in order to indulge his 

 love of music. This dog could never be kept at home during 

 the fair which is held twice a year at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

 As soon as the street bands appeared and began to play the 

 dog ran off and followed them through the streets of Frankfort 

 from morning till night. This habit was well known by his 

 owners who were accustomed to keep dinner for him in the 

 evening at the time of the fair. 



It is sufficiently clear that neither cats nor dogs nor any of the 

 other animals which hear the music of man were formed with 

 a view to the perception of such sounds. I mean that the 

 auditory organ which they possess, arising under the guidance 

 of natural selection, cannot have assumed its present form in 



