234 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



ceeding to a restaurant to recruit exhausted nature when 

 the spaniel suddenly ran after a well-dressed man who 

 was walking about fifty yards in front and began to bark 

 loudly. The owner hurried after the animal to call it 

 back, but, instead of obeying him, it attacked the stranger, 

 fixing its teeth into his trousers and holding on for all it 

 was worth. The gentleman then perceived that this was 

 one of his garments, which had disappeared on the night 

 when his villa was pillaged, so he spoke to a wood- 

 ranger who happened to be passing, and the man was 

 conducted to the police station, where he was forced to 

 confess that he had had a hand in the burglary, though 

 he declined to give the names of his accomi^lices. So 

 the dog had turned out to be an excellent dectective." 

 If one may recognise reason in animals whenever such 

 " reasonable " acts are done, i.e., when certain means are 

 employed to secure special ends, which are outside their 

 normal procedures, then we apparently can see such in 

 the actions of animals which possess no brains at all, 

 but only a nervous system. 



Thus, if the head of a frog be cut off, and a little acid 

 be rubbed on the inner side of one of the legs, the other 

 leg is instantly drawn up and turns the foot to try and 

 rub off the acid from the other leg. 



This may be called a " reasonable " act, but it is 

 simply an unconscious, mechanical, reflex action from the 

 spinal cord ; for if a long needle be now thrust down and 

 destroy the cord, all action of the leg ceases immediately. 

 A frog which has been deprived of its cerebral hemi- 

 spheres, swims perfectly in water and is indeed obedient 

 to all sorts of stimulus. The reflex action which accounts 

 for all its movements shows an entire want of any spon- 

 taneity, and is purely automatic, as it takes place precisely 

 in the same way under the same stimulus. Unlike 



