188 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



DO THE LOWER ANIMALS REASON! 



C. O. NUTTING. 



For the average layman to enter into a discussion involving 

 psychological matters is surely a rather hazardous proceeding 

 and indicates a temerity that needs some apology. 



Your speaker, although not a" psychologist, has become 

 greatly interested in the evidences of mind that have impressed 

 themselves upon him in his study of animals, and has had his 

 interest greatly stimulated by the perusal of the works of two 

 writers, one of whom discusses animal psychology from the 

 side of the naturalist, and the other from the side of the psy- 

 chologist. With the latter writer I have been led into the 

 most delightful correspondence involving a discussion of the 

 question "Do the lower animals reason?' ' a question upon which 

 I have been forced to differ from the gentleman in question 



I referred a moment ago to the difficulty involved in a psy- 

 chological discussion. This difficulty is two-fold, arising first 

 from the necessity of exact and very careful definitions of 

 terms, and sec nd, from the great tendency to be drawn off into 

 a discussion of side issues, which, however alluring are not 

 strictly pertinent to the matter in hand. 



It is my purpose to discuss briefly the attitude of the two 

 authors above mentioned, Romanes and Lloyd Morgan; to 

 point out my objections both to the premises and conclusions 

 of the latter, to state with all diffidence my own position in the 

 question, and finally to cite a sufficient number of facts to justify 

 that conclusion. 



George J. Romanes, an English zoologist, whose untimely 

 death has been a severe loss to science, has written two works 

 on " The Intelligence of Animals," and " Mental Evolution in 

 Animals. " He has sought to establish a thoroughly consistent 

 scheme of development of mind along evolutionary lines. The 

 following propositions will indicate the keynote to his position. 



