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worst form of lying? Your exaggerated account has just so much 
of truth mixed up in it as to make it acceptable, whilst its 
exaggeration utterly destroys its use for all scientific purposes. 
We want more facts, carefully observed, well considered, and 
accurately told, to help in this work. Everyone who keeps a 
dog, cat, bird, or any other animal, can assist, and to those who 
can give time and attention to what is daily going on in our noble 
Aquarium, a rich store of valuable information can be obtained. 
An increased interest is added to the work by reason of its 
extreme difficulty. Our philosophers cogitate upon their own 
states and conditions, and they apply their reasonings to men 
like unto themselves. But we all know what a great variety of 
results they produce by their processes. How much more difficult 
must it be when we have animal nature outside Man to deal with. 
We can have but little idea as to what their states of consciousness 
may be. It seems clear that, as to some of them, their senses are 
very different in degree, if not in kind, to ours ; there seems to be 
good ground for believing that, as to some, their sense of vision 
is not bounded by our spectrum, and that their sense of hearing 
is much more acute than ours; then again, we can only infer 
their states of consciousness from their actions, which we interpret 
much in the same way that we do human actions. We may be 
right, or we may be wrong, in this, but it is all we can do. You 
will say, if the difficulties are so great what is the use of troubling 
ourselves about the matter? It is just because it is difficult that 
the problem should be attacked. There is great encouragement 
for us in what has been achieved, and there is still more in the 
great advantages which may be attained by a fuller knowledge of 
animal life. We have many lessons yet to learn from what we are 
pleased to call the inferior creatures, not only in their wonderful 
intelligence but also in their extreme stupidity. 
The only knowledge we get of animal action is derived from 
three sources, namely: reflex action, instinct, and reason ; and 
before proceeding further it will be necessary to give definitions 
of what we mean by these three terms. It is true that in giving 
such definitions we almost beg the question at issue, but it seems 
that we can hardly avoid that if we are to treat the matter so that 
it can be understood. You must always remember that these 
definitions are only provisional, and used merely to make what 
follows easier to understand, In his work on Animal Intelligence, 
Romanes gives the following definitions of these three terms :—- 
Reflex action is non-mental, neuro-muscular, adjustment, 
due to the inherited mechanism of the nervous system, which is 
formed to respond to particular and oft-recurring stimuli, by 
giving rise to particular movements of an adaptive though not of 
an intentional kind. ; 
