The Borders of Reason and Instinct 347 
be due really to observation, though it is only half-conscious observation. In conclusion, 
we may say with some confidence that the sets of actions governed by both reason and 
instinct—in animals which think by the use of brains and not by the action of 
ganglions, or whatever the right term may be for the nerve centres of the lower 
creatures—are just as rational as purely reasonable acts done by the use of will only; 
for in them the automatic impulse of instinct is made use of consciously by the 
animal, just in the same way that it uses its sense of touch, or sight, or its 
muscles, to achieve whatever its end may be. The contribution of instinct is merely 
passive, for, when it consists of an impulse to perform certain acts, it is guided by 
reason just as the motions of the birds are. In other words, in the higher animals 
instinct detached from reason is almost entirely useless to their existence and survival. 
ANIMAL ANECDOTES. 
Some instances of instinct and intelligence in animals. 
WE have received the following two anec- 
dotes from correspondents. 
They may fitly be inserted 
here. A photograph of the 
collie which is the centre of the first story is 
reproduced on page 344: “A lady living 
nearly three miles from a town had a collie 
which, as it had hurt one of its legs, she took 
to a veterimary surgeon the other side of the 
town. There the dog was retained for a 
couple of days, and was well looked after and 
the leg cured. Some six weeks had passed 
when the lady noticed her collie looking very 
sick and ill. The sickness continuing for 
three days she was thinking of driving him 
to the vetermary surgeon again, but on 
going to look for him in the morning about 
twelve o’clock she found he had disappeared, 
turning up, however, looking quite well just 
before dark. A friend in the village after- 
wards told ther that he had seen the dog 
strolling along the road in the morning 
towards the town. She heard afterwards 
from the veterinary surgeon’s servant that 
the dog had been at their gate in the morning 
waiting to be let m for over an hour and a 
half. He waited so patiently and looked so 
ill that the vet., recognising his former 
patient, took him in, gave him a dose of 
medicine, and let him out to stroll home as 
he liked. The collie had only been to that 
A Collie’s 
Cleverness. 
side of the town once before in his life, that 
being when he was driven with his bad leg, 
more than six weeks previously, to see the 
veterinary surgeon. The vet. thought this 
such a curious instance of cleverness and 
memory that he refused to take any fee for 
his treatment.” 
Wa 
“A GROOM, a man of uncertain temper, had 
charge, amongst others, of a 
large chestnut horse. The 
horse had on several occasions 
to put up with brutal illtreatment from 
the man, all of which it bore without a 
murmur, until one day, when the man was 
riding it down to the pond to water, instead 
of standing at the edge with only its fore- 
feet in the water, as was its usual custom, 
it walked straight in to the depth of about 
three feet, and, after drinking, deliberately 
pitched the fellow from off its back, and 
then, letting him struggle for a few moments, 
caught hold of his clothes with its teeth and 
dragged him out again, a sadder but a wiser 
man, to the great amusement of a farm- 
hand who had been an interested spectator 
of the whole thing. This was the more 
remarkable as, upon other occasions, it was 
impossible to make the animal enter the 
water to any depth, although attempts had 
been made to do so.” 
A Horse’s 
Revenge. 
