CHAPTER V. 



THE DAWN OP MIND IN MAN : MENTAL CONDITION OF 

 CHILDEEN AND SAVAGES. 



PEIOR to a study of the genesis and evolution of mind in 

 the young of the lower animals, it is all-important that the 

 student should be previously well acquainted with the phe- 

 nomena that constitute or characterise the dawn and gradual 

 development of intelligence, on the one hand, in the human 

 infant or child of civilised races, and on the other in savage 

 man under the different degrees and conditions of his 

 savagery. 



The mental condition of the human child is of special 

 interest, because various authors have instituted a psychical 

 parallelism between the earlier stages of growth of the mind 

 in man and its full development in other amimals; in other 

 words, they hold that throughout their lives or in their 

 mature condition the lower animals are mentally in the con- 

 dition of children that their mind in its prime is essentially 

 childish. According to Houzeau, for instance, the mental 

 development of the infant or child at various ages marks the 

 levels which, in other animals, intelligence permanently at- 

 tains ; and long ago Locke, while quite recently Carpenter 

 and other writers on mental physiology, have instituted 

 similar comparisons and drawn similar inferences. But that 

 there is only a certain amount of truth in such inferences is 

 shown by the general results recorded in this volume, which 

 go to prove the frequent psychical superiority of the lower 

 animals the dog, horse, elephant, parrot, or ape over the 

 human child, and even over the human adult. 



Whatever be the result or advantage of such a compari- 

 son or parallelism, there can be no doubt as to the propriety 



