22 The Animal Mind 



declares that the concept of consciousness is worthless in the 

 study of animals, as no one knows whether an animal is 

 conscious or not. He suggests as additions to the new vocab- 

 ulary the term pleronomic to designate inherited reactions, and 

 enbiontic to signify acquired reactions (476). Nuel also 

 thinks that our ignorance of the mental states of animals 

 renders comparative psychology unscientific. He prefers the 

 "kinetic" to the psychic point of view; a sense-organ, in 

 man or beast, is an apparatus for reactions (297). In a book 

 on vision Nuel has suggested an objective terminology of his 

 own, where "ikonoreaction," for example, takes the place of 

 sight (2 96).* 



It would seem that no serious objection could be raised 

 against the use of a purely objective nomenclature in physiol- 

 ogy, and that confusion might thereby be avoided, without 

 prejudicing the case of comparative psychology, which might 

 exist side by side with the other science, and reserve the terms 

 with psychic implications for itself. Wasmann, it is true, 

 objects to the new terminology on its own account, as cum- 

 brous and scholastic, and says that if Ziegler cannot use such 

 wprds as sensation, perception, seeing, and the like, without 



* anthropomorphism, the fault is his own, and the fact should 

 not lead him to impose a new set of words on others (428). 

 These criticisms, however, are those of the conservative who 

 objects to anything new; all technical vocabularies are pe- 

 dantic, but it is impossible to take too many precautions 

 against confusion of ideas. 



^^What attitude, now, shall we assume upon the broader 

 question raised by these writers, as to whether comparative 

 psychology is possible at all ? Must we accept the statement 



1 Another instance of an attempt to use terminology without psychic im- 

 plications is to be found in R. Semon's "Die Mncme als erhaltendes 

 Princip im Wechsel des organischen Geschehens " (379). 



