278 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



object first employed. Another point illustrated besides 

 the " articulateness " dwelt on above, is the combination 

 of movements frequently observed, a good case of the 

 sort of adaptation of one act to another in a series which 

 we have taken as differentiating Desire from Impulse. 

 There was indeed in their whole proceeding a degree of 

 articulateness which 1 have not seen in experiments with any 

 other animals. Mr. Small's epithet " crass " would have 

 to be modified before it was applied to the perceptions or 

 ideas of monkeys. Their handling is indeed much less 

 dexterous, and if I may use the expression refined, than 

 one would suppose an untaught man's to be, but far more 

 discriminating than that of any other animal that I have seen. 

 Perpetually exploring objects, pulling them to pieces, and 

 pushing them about, they get to understand better than 

 any other animal how things will act, and what they can 

 do to things. Their hands are far finer organs of tactual 

 discrimination than anything which lower animals possess ; 

 but equally, they seem inferior in this point to the human 

 finger ; and with this tactual discrimination, the degree of 

 their appreciation of objects, their behaviour and relations, 

 seems to be closely correlated. 



3. Tied rope. (See above p. 192.) 



The elephant, dog and cat were easily taught to 

 pull beyond the knot of a tied rope. The monkeys 

 may be said rather to have shown an appreciation of 

 the knot. 



The Professor was enclosed in his inner cage, as shown in the 

 diagram. I tied a box to a rope, passing one end straight through 

 both bars to him, while the other was passed round beyond the 

 bars, and also given to him. It was natural that he should pull 

 the straight rope, and this he did, reaching through both bars to 

 get at the box. I then twisted the straight rope round one of 

 the bars. He at once put his hand beyond the bar, and pulled 

 the rope in. 1 I then moved the knot to a remoter bar. After 

 once pulling on his side of the knot, he again reached beyond, 

 and I found the next day that he would either claw beyond the 



1 Mr. George Jennison, an experienced and very judicious observer, 

 who was with me, thought this attributable merely to the effort to reach 

 as far as possible. The subsequent trials, however, suggest that the 

 chimpanzee recognised the knot as the critical point. 



