110 DREAMS AND DELUSIONS. 



though the operation can scarcely be said to be morbid, other 

 animals constantly commit the same kind of errors that man 

 does from jumping too hastily at conclusions. Such ideational 

 errors are, moreover, as varied and numerous as they are in 

 man. 



Youatt speaks, and very properly, of the 'misconcep- 

 tions ' of a shying horse. Elaine tells us of the fanciful- 

 ness ' of sick dogs ; and there can be no doubt that pet and 

 pampered animals especially are subject to all manner of 

 sudden whims, caprices, fancies or fantasies. 



Delusion is sometimes in other animals, as in man, epi- 

 demic, as I have elsewhere pointed out in describing and 

 analysing the mental phenomena of panic, as illustrated by 

 stampedes of various kinds. As in so many other cases, 

 there is here a groundless sense of danger, an indefinite 

 dread of a peril that is purely imaginary. But it is so rapidly 

 communicated by imitation or sympathy from one animal to 

 another in a flock or herd that it appears simultaneously to 

 affect the whole mass, and leads to a sort of common action 

 too usually of a self-destructive kind. 



