Intelligence of the Horse. 



In discussing the intelligence of animals I am aware that 

 many persons, at the outset, would question the propriety of 

 the term. Man has so long arrogated the exclusive possession 

 of mind, or at least of a mind capable of rational reflection, that 

 he is reluctant to concede the fact of its possession by the lower 

 orders of animal life. Those acts which, in the brute creation, 

 seem to proceed from the action of powers analagous to human 

 intelligence, it has been usual to ascribe to an irrational faculty 

 called instinct ; a power invariable and despotic in its action, 

 but in no degree the result of reflection ; some metaphysicians 

 even going so far as to assert that the action of animals is 

 purely automatic, the difference in this respect between them 

 and the automaton moved by wires and springs being that the 

 former possess a consciousness of their acts, while the latter 

 does not. Facts in myriads, exist which challenge the correct- 

 ness of such a theory, while in almost number they assert the 

 existence, at least in its embryonic state, of a mind capable of 

 thought, and, to a limited degree, of reflection and comparision, 

 with the ability to deduce conclusions from the facts which it 

 considers. 



This intelligence varies greatly in the different animal races, 

 in some species being barely perceptible, while in others it is 

 too conspicuous to be ignored ; and between individuals of the 

 same species there exists a difference so marked that, in the 

 more favored ones which come under our observation, the ia* 



