40 MENTAL STATUS 



more safely or surely be determined than those of the young 

 of other animals. t. 



Inasmuch as such an animal as the adult, naturally or 

 hereditarily intelligent, well- trained dog as has been 

 pointed out, for instance, by Miss Cobbe has moral sense 

 and is morally responsible, with religious feeling of the kind 

 that has been described in another chapter, while it is 

 capable of wonderful self-sacrifice and self-control, and exhibits 

 remarkable sagacity and ingenuity, with a predominance of 

 virtues over vices such animals must be considered mentally 

 and morally the superiors of the human infant and child, as 

 they so frequently are also of the human adult. 



In savage races of man the following features in their 

 mental or natural history are specially deserving of con- 

 sideration, as illustrating their psychical status compared 

 with that of other animals : 



1. The absence of fixed shelter or dwellings, or their 

 rudimentary character. Like feral carnivora, primitive man 

 made use of caves, as do certain savage races of the present 

 day. 



2. Absence of clothing ; bodily nakedness. 



3. Ignorance of the use of fire for cooking or warmth 

 for instance, as found by the Spaniards, who first came in 

 contact with the Ladrone Islanders (Biichner). The tradi- 

 tions of the ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Persians, 

 Chinese, and Greeks point to the introduction and develop- 

 ment of the knowledge and uses of fire. 



4. Absence of cookery ; the use of raw food, animal or 

 vegetable. 



5. Morbid appetite and depraved taste, including : (a) 

 Geophagy dirt- or earth-eating fatal generally by dysen- 

 tery or dropsy among the Indians of the Orinoco and 

 other parts of South America, as well as among the 

 Laplanders (Gait). Under this head may be classed the 

 indiscriminate or omnivorous appetite of the Pata- 

 gonians (Houzeau). (6) Ordure-eating, (c) Carrion- eating 

 among the Zulus. (d) Placenta-eating of parturient 

 mothers. (e) Cannibalism, even of their own children, 

 parents, or other relatives for instance, by the Caribs 

 (Biichner). 



