12 The Animal Mind 



animal experimented upon under abnormal conditions in the 

 attempt to make them definite and controllable. 1 Did not, 

 for example, the extreme hunger to which Thorndike's cats 

 and dogs were reduced, while it simplified the conditions 

 in one sense by making the strength of the motive to escape 

 as nearly as possible equal for all the animals, complicate 

 matters in another sense by diminishing their capacity to 

 learn? Were the animals perhaps frightened and dis- 

 tracted by the unusual character of their surroundings? 

 Thorndike thinks not (396); but whether or no he suc- 

 ceeded in averting these dangers, it is clear that they are 

 real. It is also obvious that they are the more threatening, 

 the higher the animal with which one has to deal. Fright, 

 bewilderment, loneliness, are conditions more apt to be met 

 with among the higher vertebrates than lower down in the 

 scale, and the utmost care should be taken to make sure that 

 animals likely to be affected by them are thoroughly trained 

 and at home in their surroundings before the experimenter 

 records results. 



4. Methods of Obtaining Facts: The Ideal Method. 



The ideal method for the study of a higher animal involves 

 patient observation upon a specimen known from birth, 

 watched in its ordinary behavior and environment, and 

 occasionally experimented upon with proper control of the 

 conditions and without frightening it or otherwise ren- 

 dering it abnormal. The observer should acquaint him- 

 self with the individual peculiarities of each animal studied, 

 for there is no doubt that striking differences in mental capac- 

 ity occur among the individuals of a single species. At the 

 same time that he obtains the confidence of each individual 



1 Cf. also Kline (222), and Vaschide and Rousseau (413). 



