Nov. 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



facts of animal intelligence on evidence that is obviously 

 insufficient. Thus, for example, we are told that the 

 hermit crab " has been noticed to feed the anemone (on 

 his shell) with his pincer-like claws; " that ants "employ 

 language of command;" that "snails are capable of 

 concerted action ; " that fish may die of " grief from 

 bereavement ; " that dogs exhibit " modesty or decency ;" 

 that monkeys "turn keys in doors, without noise, to secure 

 themselves against interruption, discovery, or capture ; " 

 and so on, while in none of these cases are any facts or 

 authorities given to support the assertions. Again, in 

 many other cases where the facts and authorities are 

 given, they are of a kind that ought not to have any place 

 in a treatise which aims at a scientific discussion of its 

 subject. For instance, we are told, without any expies- 

 sion of doubt on the part of the author, that " Daniell 

 shows how a mere passing fancy for — a glimpse at — some 

 dog, on the part of a pointer bitch, so impressed her 

 memory and imagination that she transmitted this impress 

 in a physical form to her progeny." Again, on no better 

 authority than that of The Animal World— bora which, 

 indeed, Dr. Lindsay is very fond of quoting — we are 

 expected to believe that " certain sparrows that failed, by 

 seizing its wings with their bills, to lift a wounded com- 

 panion, so as to convey it to a position of safety, got a 

 twig, and while the maimed bird took hold of its centre 

 by its bill, two of its companions seized, one each of its 

 ends, so raised the helpless sparrow from the ground, and 

 removed it to a safer place." And, to give only one other 

 illustration, on the authority of an American paper called 

 the Christian Union, we are told this painfully pathetic 

 story :— " A young rat had fallen into a pail of pig-food ; 

 six older ones held a consultation so earnest in its cha- 

 racter as to lead them to ignore the presence of human 

 on-lookers. They decided on -an ingenious scheme of 

 rescue, and successfully carried it out. Entwining their 

 legs together, they formed a chain, hanging downwards 

 over the edge of the pail. The foremost or downmost 

 rat grasped the drowning, and, as it subsequently proved, 

 drowned, young one in its fore-paws, and both rescued 

 and rescuer were then drawn up and out. When found 

 to be dead, the rescuers gazed at their young comrade in 

 ' mute despair,' wiped the tears from their eyes with their 

 fore-paws, and departed without making any attempts to 

 resuscitate it." 



Evidently these rats were not acquainted with the 

 Royal Humane Society's directions for the restoration of 

 the apparently drowned, and considering that the calamity 

 occurred in a civilised country, the most striking feature 

 of the incident appears to be the ignorance which the 

 animals displayed in yielding to grief " without making 

 any attempts" to produce artificial respiration. 



Another fault which pervades the work is that of undue 

 eagerness to prove that no difference in kind exists 

 between the mind of man and the mind of the lower 

 animals — a fault which leads the author into the opposite 

 error of disparaging such difference as does exist. Thus 

 the book abounds with such statements as the following : — 

 '•' There are countless thousands — many whole races — (of 

 men) that are intellectually and morally the inferiors of 

 many well-trained mammals, such as the chimpanzee, 

 orang, dog, elephant, or horse ; or birds, such as the 

 parrot, starling, magpie, jackdaw, and various crows ; as 



well as many animals much lower in the zoological scale, 

 and not trained by man at all, such as the ant, bee, and 

 wasp." And this belief in the mental equality, or even 

 superiority, of animals as compared with the lower races 

 of man, is doubtless the explanation of the writer's 

 tendency to attribute to rational thought actions of 

 animals which are much more probably due to other 

 causes. For instance: "A cat was found drowned in a 

 pond immediately after the death of a master to whom it 

 had been much attached. It had left the house on his 

 illness a fortnight previously, refusing to enter it again 

 {Animal World). The inference was that grief had 

 led to deliberate self-destruction ; but the verdict of 

 accidental drowning, is, of course, equally permissible." 

 The word " equally " here serves to illustrate our meaning. 



With regard to references there is also a serious com- 

 plaint to be made. It is not enough to give the name of 

 an author without any reference to the part of his writings 

 where his facts or opinions are stated. Thus, although 

 Dr. Lindsay's pages are thickly strewn with the names of 

 his authorities in brackets, his readers will but rarely 

 have the opportunity, without an impracticable amount of 

 trouble, of seeing exactly what these authorities them- 

 selves have to say on the topics in connection with which 

 they are quoted. 



On minor faults or errors it is needless to dwell — such 

 as the curious notion which Dr. Lindsay seems to enter- 

 tain, that the word "glutton" is derived from the 

 synonym of the wolverine, instead of vice versa (p. 92). 

 The chief faults are undoubtedly those which have been 

 mentioned, and they have been mentioned in order to 

 suggest that, should there be a second edition of the 

 book, it would be greatly improved by presenting less 

 diffusiveness and more discrimination than is presented 

 by the first edition. GEORGE J. ROMANES 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



An Atlas of Anatomy ; or, Pictures of the Human Body, 

 in Twenty-four Quarto Coloured Plates, comprising 

 One Hundred Separate Figures. With descriptive 

 Letterpress by Mrs. Fenwick Miller, Member of the 

 London School Board, &c. (London : Edward Stan- 

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 This work has been issued at a comparatively low price 

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 no doubt such a volume as this would prove quite an 

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 the plates are new — never before published in any form 

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 authoress had mainly in view the requirements of young 

 students, and she has not assumed that any of her readers 



