THE HUMANIZING OF THE BRUTE. 9 



ratiocination in animals. It is true, he ascribes what 

 he calls "simple intelligence" to animals, and main- 

 tains that this term implies "choice on the part of the 

 individual organism." *) But his term "choice" 

 can hardly mean choice in as far as it supposes the 

 abstract comparison of two objects. For he declares 

 with reference to ants ' 'that there are no evidences of 

 anything resembling abstract thought, cognition or 

 ratiocination as manifested in man." 2 ) Prof. Ed- 

 ward L,. Thorndike of Columbia University is a de- 

 cided adversary of animal intelligence. After a most 

 careful examination of the question, he "failed to find 

 any act that even seemed due to reasoning, " 3 ) and 

 that "even after leaving reason out of account, there 

 are tremendous differences between man and the higher 

 animals." 4 ) 



But abstracting from such few authors the late zoo- 

 logist Prof. A. S. Packard is correct when he states: 

 "Those naturalists who observe most closely (?) and 

 patiently the habits of animals do not hesitate to state 

 their belief that animals, and some more than others, 

 possess reasoning powers which differ in degree rather 



l ~) "The Compound and Mixed Nests of American Ants," 

 The American Naturalist, Vol. XXXV. (1901), p. 809. 



2 ) I.e., p. 813. 



3 ) "Animal Intelligence; an Experimental Study of the 

 Associative Processes in Animals." Series of Monograph 

 Supplements to Psychological Review Vol. II., No. 4, June, 

 1898, p. 46. 



4 ) 1. c., p. 87. Thorndike, at times, speaks of animals as 

 if he ascribed intelligence to them. But, in reality, he means 

 nothing else than what we would call "plastic instinct." 



