COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 37 



Psychology : the nature of the mental processes by 

 which animals make their way back by a different 

 route to places from which they have been taken. I 

 have given the subject considerable attention, and I 

 hope before very long to be able to throw some new 

 light on this vexed question. At this meeting, a paper 

 published by Dr Packard in the American Naturalist, 

 for September 1885, on the " Origin of the American 

 Varieties of the Dog," was read, on account of the great 

 interest of the subject. When we consider how widely 

 the dog has departed from all his supposed ancestors 

 in his physical traits, we are amazed at the extent to 

 which lower minds can be modified we might almost 

 say radically changed by contact with the dominant 

 mind of man. 



This being the last meeting of the session, the Presi- 

 dent proposed certain subjects for study during the 

 summer. These were put in the following form : 



To what extent have the lower animals imagination ? 

 What animals dream ? The persistence and modifica- 

 tion of instinct. Is there a " homing instinct " or a 

 " sense of direction " peculiar to animals ? What 

 groups of animals understand mechanical contrivances, 

 and which can use tools ? How far do the minds of 

 animals become modified by contact with man ? Have 

 any animals a special aptitude or a peculiar faculty for 

 determining where water is to be found ? The special 

 senses of the lower animals compared with those of 

 man ; feigning, catalepsy, etc., in the lower animals ; a 

 moral sense in animals below man. 



It is not to be understood that our attention was 

 devoted exclusively to the dog during our first year of 

 existence as a Society, but it has appeared to me best 

 to give a sketch of our investigation of each animal 

 separately, so I now continue the account of our study 

 of the dog during last year. Before doing so, it may be 



