THE PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG ANIMALS 227 



shows, the social instincts so far as man and other 

 animals are concerned. How seldom a cat seems even 

 to miss its old friends, if indeed they are to it friends. 

 Not that I believe the cat an entirely ungrateful 

 animal. It is very sensitive to good and to bad treat- 

 ment, but it is not dependent on man either physically 

 or psychically. The cat may, of its own accord, take 

 to the fields and woods to secure an independent 

 existence, and so long as the environment is favourable, 

 it may, it would seem, be utterly oblivious alike of 

 friends and foes. 



This independence was shown quite early in the case 

 of my kitten. At the same time, one of the most 

 interesting features in this psychic study has been 

 noting the way in which higher mental states and 

 better qualities prevailed in the end in this kitten, 

 under good treatment. It had finally become social 

 and affectionate, discriminating in favour of the one 

 who had really done the most for its comfort. But of 

 self-denying, purely unselfish devotion to a master, as 

 in the case of the dog, there seems to be little very 

 little in the cat. But puss is no flatterer, and her 

 readiness to resent ill-treatment may have had much 

 to do with her not occupying a higher position in man's 

 esteem. 



I have, myself, raised a cat from the depth of de- 

 gradation, so to speak, to self-respect and the respect 

 of others by patient and persevering good treatment, 

 and I am anxious to record the fact, as I believe the 

 cat to be much misunderstood, and its intelligence 

 greatly underrated. 



If the term intelligence be employed in a wide sense, 

 and be made to cover the power an animal has to 

 adapt means to ends, in a more or less conscious way, 

 including the adaptation of its own organisation to the 

 environment, then the diary of the cat will furnish an 



