CHAPTER XII. 



UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LOWEK 



ANIMALS. 



We have seen, or have yet to see, how many of the doings 

 of animals, formerly ascribed to instinct, are really attribut- 

 able to reason or intelligence, to observation and reflection ; 

 but there are many other phenomena connected with their 

 habits which at present we cannot explain satisfactorily. 

 To ascribe such phenomena to instinct is merely to confess 

 our ignorance by the use of a term that has in such a case 

 no definite signification, that has for ages been applied to 

 phenomena that belong to the province of reason. The use 

 of such a term in such a context is mischievous, as consti- 

 tuting an obstacle to scientific investigation. 



It is much better to relegate all such puzzling faculties 

 or phenomena simply to the category of the unexplained, so 

 that special attention may be drawn towards them and may 

 lead to their experimental investigation. It is quite possible 

 that it may be necessary further to relegate certain of these 

 faculties or phenomena to the category of the inexplicable. 

 We may never be able to explain them satisfactorily on the 

 theory either of reason or instinct. But, on the other hand, 

 the probability is that due investigation will enable us to 

 remove the majority of such problems from the category of 

 the unexplained or even the apparently inexplicable to that of 

 those that admit of satisfactory explanation, as being deter- 

 mined by, or dependent upon, ordinary intelligence or in- 

 stinct. It may be that we have to look for missing links in 

 the chain of evidence, or that we have simply to exclude by 

 experimental tests certain suggested explanations, and so 

 gradually limit the issue. 



