THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



of inquiry can throw upon the puzzle of animal men- 

 tality and its relation to our own; it is engaging the 

 attention of some serious-minded men, and I would 

 not undervalue its contributions to our knowledge 

 of the springs of animal psychology. At the same 

 time I am bound to say that I think it can take us 

 but a little way into the great field of animal life. 

 The true perspective of such life can only be given 

 by the student of the uncontrolled behavior of our 

 dumb friends. 



The low valuation I set upon animal experi- 

 mentation does not, as some of my readers seem 

 to think, apply with the same force to all experi- 

 mental science. Experimental science has given 

 us our material civilization; what has animal ex- 

 perimentation given us? The inorganic elements 

 and forces behave the same in the laboratory and 

 out. But a live animal does not. You cannot con- 

 trol life as you can chemical reactions. Sound, 

 heat, light, electricity, are the same everywhere, 

 but an animal has nerves and instincts and asso- 

 ciative memory. The dog with the puzzle-box is 

 quite a different creature from the dog with the 

 woodchuck. 



Anything like an exact science of animal behavior 

 is, it seems to me, as impossible in the laboratory as 

 out of it. If animals were perfect automata, then 

 we might have the science of animal behavior that 

 the experimentalists dream of; but the conduct of 

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