64 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 
In how far is it instinctive, and in how far an intelli- 
gent and deliberate adaptation of means to an end 
under unusual circumstances? How did the instinct 
of feigning death and injury arise in the first instance ? 
Has feigning been confounded with something else 
totally different, such as the results of fear, surprise, 
etc.? Is the expression, “feigning death,” not mis- 
leading in itself? The matter is so intricate, and such 
diverse views have been entertained in regard to the 
subject of feigning, that it will be necessary, in order to 
arrive at a solution, to examine critically several of the 
views advanced. 
Feigning death has been observed in many different 
genera of insects, in snakes, fishes, numerous birds, 
crustaceans, and several mammals. 
In a most interesting account of experiments on 
certain animals, by Prof. Czermak, published in the 
Popular Science Monthly (vols. iii. and iv.), it was 
shown that in the crayfish, in hens, geese, ducks, 
turkeys, pigeons, the swan, etc., a state, which this 
writer recognised as having a physiological basis, but 
which he did not attempt himself to explain, occurs. 
In all these animals, under the influence of steady 
restraint of motion, or, combined with that, prolonged 
gazing at some object held just before the eyes, a con- 
dition of quietude and partial or complete unconscious- 
ness was induced for a shorter or longer period, after 
which they regained their usual condition. In some 
of the animals the muscles became rigid, ze. the 
cataleptic condition was induced. 
About five years later Prof. Preyer gave the subject 
a thorough experimental examination. The starting 
point of all these experiments was the experimentum 
mirabile of Kircher, in 1646; Preyer seems to use the 
term “cataplexy ” to cover what is now more commonly 
called “catalepsy,’ or “hypnotism.” Preyer believed 
