360 Animal Life and Intelligence. 



merely organic, and how far there enters a psychological 

 element. 



I ought not, perhaps, to pass over in perfect silence the 

 subject of protozoan psychology. M. Binet has published 

 a little book on " The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms," 

 in the preface of which he says, " We could, if it were 

 necessary, take every single one of the psychical faculties 

 which M. Eomanes reserves for animals more or less 

 advanced on the zoological scale, and show that the greater 

 part of these faculties belonged equally to micro-organisms." 

 He says that " there is not a single infusory that cannot 

 be frightened, and that does not manifest its fear by a 

 rapid flight through the liquid of the preparation," and he 

 speaks of infusoria fleeing " in all directions like a flock of 

 frightened sheep." He attributes memory to Folliculina, 

 and instinct " of great precision " to Difflugia. He regards 

 some of these animalculse as " endowed with memory and 

 volition," and he describes the following stages : 

 " 1. The perception of the external object. 

 " 2. The choice made between a number of objects. 

 " 3. The perception of their position in space. 

 " 4. Movements calculated either to approach the body 

 and seize it or to flee from it." 



But when we have got thus far, we are brought up by 

 the following sentence : " We are not in a position to 

 determine whether these various acts are accompanied by 

 consciousness, or whether they follow as simple physio- 

 logical processes." Since, therefore, the fear, memory, 

 instinct, perception, and choice, spoken of by M. Binet, 

 may be merely physiological processes (though, of course, 

 they may be accompanied by some dim unimaginable form 

 of consciousness), it seems scarcely necessary to say more 

 about them here. 



I have now said all that is necessary, and all that I 

 think justified by the modest scope of this work, concerning 

 the process of construction in animals, and the nature of 

 the constructs we may presume that they form. The pro- 



