ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 5 



inter-communication save such as the psychical-research society 

 has noted. If he should further misinterpret the cases of mere 

 coincidence of thoughts as facts comparable to telepathic com- 

 munication, he would not be more wrong than some of the ani- 

 mal psychologists. In short, the anecdotes give really the 

 abnormal or siipcr-nornial psychology of animals. 



Further, it must be confessed that these vices have been 

 only ameliorated, not obliterated, when the observation is first- 

 hand, is made by the psychologist himself. For as men of the 

 utmost scientific skill have failed to prove good observers in the 

 field of spiritualistic phenomena,^ so biologists and psycholo- 

 gists before the pet terrier or hunted fox often become like Sam- 

 son shorn. They, too, have looked for the intelligent and 

 unusual and neglected the stupid and normal. 



Finally, in all cases, whether of direct observation or report 

 by good observers or bad, there have been three other defects. 

 Only a single case is studied, and so the results are not neces- 

 sarily true of the type ; the observation is not repeated, nor are 

 the conditions perfectly regulated ; the previous history of the 

 animal in question is not known. Such observations may tell 

 us, if the observer is perfectly reliable, that a certain thing 

 takes place, but they cannot assure us that it will take place 

 universally among the animals of that species, or universally with 

 the same animal. Nor can the influence of previous experience be 

 estimated. All this refers to means of getting knowledge about 

 what animals do. The next question is, " What do th^y Jecl ?'' 

 Previous work has not furnished an answer or the material for 

 an answer to this more important question. Nothing but care- 

 fully designed, crucial experiments can. In abandoning the 

 old method one ought to seek above all to replace it by one 

 which will not only tell more accurately zuhat they do, and give 

 the much-needed information hozu they do it, but also inform us 

 what they /eel while they act. 



To remedy these defects experiment must be substituted for 



' I do not mean that scientists have been too credulous with regard to spirit- 

 ualism, but am referring to the cases where ten or twenty scientists have been 

 sent to observe some trick-performance by a spiritualistic ' medium,' and have 

 all been absolutely confident that they understood the secret of its performance, 

 each of them giving a totally different explanation. 



