IXDIVIDUALITY, TEMPERAMENT, AND GENIUS IN ANIMALS 243 



in his good-sized cage. A workman 

 passing the cage stopped and offered 

 him a banana. He hnrried over to get 

 the proffered food, but just as he 

 reached out his hand for it, the man 

 unkindly drew it away and started to 

 walk off. Julius, evidently disap- 

 pointed and seemingly resentful, 

 turned, and by a series of somersaults 

 rapidly rolled the whole length of his 

 cage. Later, the same sort of behavior 

 was observed in quite different situa- 

 tions. When, for instance, after work- 

 ing persistently to solve an experi- 

 mental problem, he failed to obtain the 

 desired reward of food, Julius would 

 bring his head to the floor with a 

 thump and turn a few somersaults. In 

 thus expressing his feelings of disap- 

 pointment and resentment, he seemed 

 to relieve himself, for afterward he 

 would go to work, sometimes with en- 

 ergy and a fair show of cheerfulness. 

 It may be remarked, by the way, that 

 similar modes of response have been 

 observed in children of two to six years 

 of age. We recall an instance in which 

 a little boy who for some time had been 

 working unsuccessfully on an ideational 

 problem bumped his head several times, 

 carefully it is true, against a wooden 

 partition, and then remarked, by way 

 of explanation, that he wished to stir 

 things up. 



When threatened with punishment 

 or actually punished, and when out of 

 sorts or ill, the young orang-utan be- 

 haved so like a child of two or three 

 years that he caused the observers to 

 feel uncomfortably sympathetic. Many 

 aspects of his behavior, which unhap- 

 pily we may not now stop to describe, 

 reminded us of our observations of chil- 

 dren, and we found ourselves involun- 

 tarily comparing him with human sub- 

 jects. 



How surprising it is, as one stops to 

 reflect on this matter of temperament, 

 that in the same household, as children 

 of the same parents, we find individuals 

 who seem to be opposites in the most 

 varied respects. The one child is sym- 

 pathetic; the other tends to be cold, 

 unresponsive, or even cruel. The one 

 is frank, naturally honest; the other 

 sly, secretive, and unreliable. The one 

 kindly, good-natured; the other sour 

 and resentful. As these children de- 

 velop, their temperamental traits may 

 be molded perhaps by educational in- 

 fluences into equally valuable types of 

 character. But never by any chance 

 can they come to possess similar tem- 

 peramental characteristics. 



Surely we shall do well to observe 

 diligently and develop means of study- 

 ing carefully and measuring the vari- 

 ous constituents of temperament, and 

 the factors which enter into character. 

 We should study the constitution and 

 varieties of genius, and especially the 

 conditions which, as experience, operate 

 upon temperamental traits to develop 

 the responses of genius and to elaborate 

 character. For in our efforts to control 

 and direct human life knowledge of 

 these aspects of individuality is of fun- 

 damental importance, and there are to- 

 day unmistakable indications that the 

 future will require of us a science of 

 human behavior which shall consider 

 as carefully the individual as the 

 species. We live in the era of the bio- 

 logical sciences, and we look forward to 

 an unprecedented development of the 

 sciences of organic function, and espe- 

 cially of those which, like physiology, 

 psychology, and sociology, attempt to 

 inform us concerning phenomena of 

 behavior. These sciences promise to 

 become of supreme importance to 

 civilization. 



