296 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



Does a similar power of selecting and combining 

 results of experience under the stimulus of desire exist 

 among other mammals, or is it confined to monkeys ? 

 Systematic observation and experiment, of which in com- 

 parative psychology there is a plentiful lack, 1 does not 

 enable us to answer this question decisively. In my own 

 experiments, the difference between monkeys and other 

 animals appeared strongly marked. But I was experiment- 

 ing in a field much more suited to the ways of a monkey 

 than to those of other animals. Suppose one were to take 

 a dog, for example, on his own ground ; in a hunting 

 problem, for instance. Is it not possible that he would 

 show an equal power of applying the results of experience 

 in a novel manner ? If we are to trust to ordinary 

 observation, and "anecdotal evidence," the answer is 

 undoubtedly in the affirmative. The question for 

 psychology is as to the value of such evidence. Much 

 of it, everybody knows, is consciously or unconsciously 

 invented or exaggerated. And even where the facts are 

 faithfully reported, we can never be sure that we know all 

 the circumstances. What appears when complete to be an 

 act of great sagacity, may, when its genesis is carefully 

 traced, reveal itself as the outcome of accident, or perhaps 

 of training. 2 



1 Notwithstanding the body of laboratory experiments which has grown 

 up since this was written. Such experiments give very little scope for 

 anything like originality on the part of an animal. Till this defect is 

 overcome anecdotal evidence cannot be wholly ruled out of our subject. 



2 See, for example, the delightful and instructive story of Mr. Lloyd 

 Morgan's fox-terrier Tony, and the crooked stick, with the passing 

 remarks thereon of the countryman who had watched the proceedings for 

 two minutes. It is superfluous to add that a trained animal may exhibit 

 apparently marvellous intelligence, with a very moderate amount of the 

 real article. There was formerly an elephant at Belle Vue which would 

 take a penny from a bystander, put it into the slot of an automatic 

 machine, and get a biscuit from the other end of the machine. If a 

 halfpenny were offered instead of a penny, the elephant would fling it 

 back angrily. "Marvellous intelligence!" is the enthusiast's comment. 

 " Rather too tall a story," is the sceptic's. The simple truth is, that every 

 stage in the performance was a matter of careful training. The elephant, 

 as the keeper explained to me, was taught the use of the machine by 

 having its trunk guided ; and, having learnt this, was taught, by between 

 two and three months' labour, to distinguish between the penny which 

 would and the halfpenny which would not set it working. A modicum of 

 intelligence remains when the explanation is given in full, but nothing 

 beyond the ordinary performance of an elephant. 



