ON THE REASONING TOWERS OF ANIMALS. 58 



A vote of thanks was proposed to Dr. Fitz Gerald, in 

 seconding which the Rev. C. L. Acland remarked that he 

 thought the fact of man-, in an embryo state passing through 

 the various metamorphoses of different animals in the sub- 

 kingdoms below him, was often pushed too far in support of 

 the developement theory. We might argue similarly from 

 the fact of his body being composed of the same chemical 

 constituents as those of the inferior creatures. 



The President then informed the members that he and all 

 those on the committee now resigned their offices, and it was 

 necessary to elect fresh ones for the ensuing year. 



The Rev. C. Parsons said that the late officers had per- 

 formed their duties so much to the satisfaction of every one, 

 that he thought they could not do better than re-elect them. 

 He therefore proposed that the whole body should be re- 

 elected. This was seconded by A. C. Taylor, Esq., and 

 carried unanimously. 



The following paper was then read by the Secretary : 



On the REASONING POWERS of ANIMALS. 



Before bringing forward any arguments in favour of this 

 opinion, it will be as well to state what I mean by saying that 

 animals possess reasoning powers. This will be best done by 

 stating the opinions of some of the naturalists and philoso- 

 phers of forinfer years. They believed, as a great many 

 non-naturalists of the pi-esent day believe, that " reason " is 

 the peculiar property of man, and that other animals are 

 totally devoid of it, having instead a mysterious faculty, invented 

 by man himself, the ignorance of the nature of which is 

 hidden by the term instinct. By virtue of this faculty they 

 perform all their actions without •' reason or deliberation " 

 (Johnson), — without knowing why they perform them, and in 

 fact, not knowing that they perform them at all. Descartes 

 says that animals canhot possess reason because they have no 

 power of speech, or in his own vvords, "It is a remarkable thing 



