

448 EVOLUTION AND ANIMAL LIFE 



on the possibility of separating the young male fur seals, or 

 "killables," from the old ones in the same band. The method 

 was to drive them through a wooden chute or runway with 

 two valvelike doors at the end. These animals can be driven 

 like sheep, but to sort them in the way proposed proved im- 

 possible. The most experienced males would beat their noses 

 against a closed door, if they had seen a seal before them pass 

 through it. That this door had been shut and another opened 

 beside it passed their comprehension. They could not choose 

 the new direction. In like manner a male fur seal will watch 

 the killing and skinning of his mates with perfect composure. 

 He will sniff at their blood with languid curiosity; so long as it 

 is not his own it does not matter. That his own blood may 

 flow out on the ground in a minute or two he cannot foresee. 



Reason arises from the necessity for a choice among actions. 

 It may arise as a clash among instincts which forces on the animal 

 the necessity of choosing. A doe, for example, in a rich pasture 

 has the instinct to feed. It hears the hounds and has the 

 instinct to flee. Its fawn may be with her and it is her instinct 

 to remain and protect it. This may be done in one of several 

 ways. In proportion as the mother chooses wisely will be the 

 fawn's chance of survival. Thus under difficult conditions, 

 reason or choice among actions rises to the aid of the lower 

 animals as well as man. 



The word mind is popularly used in two different senses. 

 In the biological sense mind is the sum total of all psychic 

 changes, actions, and reactions. Under the head of psychic 

 functions are included all operations of the nervous system 

 as well as all functions of like nature which may exist in organ- 

 isms without specialized nerve fibers or nerve cells. As thus 

 defined mind would include all phenomena of irritability, and 

 even plants have the rudiments of it. The operations of the 

 mind in this sense need not be conscious. With the lower 

 animals almost all of them are automatic and unconscious. 

 With man most of them must be so. All functions of the sen- 

 sorium, irritability, reflex action, instinct, reason, volition, 

 are alike in essential nature though differing greatly in their 

 degree of specialization. 



In another sense the term mind is applied only to con- 

 scious reasoning or conscious volition. In this sense it is 

 mainly an attribute of man, the lower animals showing it in 



