x SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 221 



This objection I will deal with later. It will be most 

 convenient to consider, first, another line of criticism 

 which allows " irrigation," but holds that, at least below 

 the apes, it is of the sensori-motor kind. This kind 

 of imitation Mr. Small found well-marked among his 

 rats, 1 leading one to dig or scratch where another was 

 digging or scratching, and, indeed, it is matter of common 

 observation. The question, then, is this : does my dog 

 pull a string or a lever merely because he sees me doing 

 so, or because he has just seen the results which followed 

 when I did so ? In the first alternative, the imitation is 

 sensori-motor that is, the perception of what is done 

 discharges a motor impulse to do the same thing, quite 

 apart from any purpose to be served by doing it. Of such 

 a character, to quote Mr. Small again, is the frown of the 

 baby which answers the frown of the nurse. 



In an extreme form, this interpretation would be quite 

 inapplicable to the animals observed by me. The inter- 

 pretation would require that the animal should be influenced 

 by the perception at the time when it perceives it. Thus 

 the rat, I suppose, runs to dig or gnaw where and while 

 the other is digging or gnawing. My animals, on the 

 other hand, normally repeated my performance only after 

 it was all over and the result had accrued. Jack did not, for 

 example, rush forward to help me to drag down the string, 

 but watched me as I dragged it down, searched for the 

 meat, ate it up, waited while I replaced meat and card, and 

 then dragged it down again. The opposite cases 2 were 

 quite exceptional, and I think confined to Jack, who was 

 always the most eager of my pupils. 8 



1 Op. cit. p. 102. 



2 Such were his actions in one trial of the spike experiment, and in the 

 cupboard-door experiment. 



3 By way of testing this irrational suggestibility, I did one or two 

 " control " experiments. I took a little ivory box, and solemnly opened it 

 before Jack. There was nothing inside. I then gave it him to play with, 

 and he pawed it about and chewed it. This was repeated four or five 

 times, after which Jack would not touch it unless bidden. He never tried 

 to lift the lid off, though it came off several times as he played with the 

 box. A day or two afterwards I put an empty paper-rack before the cat, 

 who was at once very much interested. The rack consisted of three or 

 four brass leaves or sides. One of these was loose, and I pulled it out. 

 The cat began at once to claw the rack, and presently pulled the loose 



