288 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



8. Removing obstacle from chain. 



I arranged matters so that the monkey's chain was 

 shortened for effective purposes by passing round a corner 

 of his box. 



I then put a piece of potato on the floor, just beyond 

 his reach. After a little hesitation, he came back, moved 

 the box out of the way, and after a little fiddling with it, 

 went back and got the potato. This was repeated a 

 second and third time without hesitation. 1 The next day, 

 he pushed the box, and later, the fender, out of the way of 

 his chain ; and when, later, I put the fender right over 

 his chain so as to shorten it to two or three inches, he 

 pushed it back, gaining a foot, and then turned it com- 

 pletely over, thereby freeing himself. I do not infer that 

 Jimmy knows that the diagonal is shorter 

 than two sides of an oblong, but I think that 

 he did clearly appreciate that the box pre- 

 vented his chain from running out, and 

 this is what I mean by an articulate idea 

 of concrete objects in their relations. The 

 : - same may be said of Miss Romanes' Cebus, 

 which would take great pains to push the 

 marble slab to which his chain was fastened 

 nearer to the object desired. 



Potato It is too heavy for him to pull along by his 

 chain without hurting himself, so when he desires 

 to do any mischief which is beyond the reach of his chain, he 

 deliberately goes to the marble and pushes an arm down between 

 an upright part of it and the wall, until he has moved the whole 

 slab sufficiently far from the wall to admit of his slipping 

 down behind the upright part himself. He then places his 

 back against the wall and his four hands against the upright 

 part of the marble, and pushes the slab as far as he can stretch 

 his long legs." 2 



A still higher perception of " concrete relations " is 

 implied in the account of a Barbary ape in Brehm's Thier- 

 lebenf which found a niche into which it could squeeze its 



1 Each time he acted furtively, apparently fearing that I should prevent 

 him. This, I think, accounts for the fiddling with the box in the first 

 trial a characteristic performance when he meant to do something which 

 he thought forbidden. 2 Romanes, p. 487. 3 I. p. 147- 





