Jan. i, 1880] 



NATURE 



203 



lays the foundation of what becomes habitual or instinctive. In 

 man, unconscious thought becoming habitual, it is the nursery 

 again of conscious thought, the two conditions in the adult 

 coexisting. 



Turning to comparative psychology, a branch which has 

 always appeared to me of particular importance, we find in in- 

 telligent animals, as the dog, either in community (commonly 

 called wild) or in the domesticated state, the same nature of 

 mind as in man and the like manifestations. In the young 

 animal, however, there must have been the same precedent stage, 

 though the conscious stage is of course produced earlier than in 

 man. 



This raises the question, on which we can speculate, but which 

 we cannot as yet solve, whether some animals are not mostly in 

 the state of unconscious thought, never attaining to that of 

 conscious thought. Looking to the cases of degradation in man, 

 it appears to me that in softening of the brain the man falls back 

 to the unconscious stage, and in some instances remains for some 

 time in it, so that here we get an example of prolongation, it 

 may be called continuance, of the unconscious stage. 



Such a state as that of habitual unconscious thought may be 

 regarded as possible and probable, and we are justified in apply- 

 ing it to many animals of inferior nervous organisation. The 

 condition of consciousness being absent, the degree of pain is 

 less, as must be the case in infants. So far from the saying of 

 the master painter of mankind being true that the worm feels as 

 great a pang as when the giant dies, the worm must be less 

 sensitive and less sen-ible. It is quite possible that the antivivi- 

 sectioni-ts may be in the wrong as to lower animals, whatever 

 reason they may have as to those like the dog. 



There will be at least the like gradations of mind as of form 

 in the animal world, and the difference between an animalcule 

 and a dog will be enormous, and still greater that between the 

 animalcule and man. In the higher stages the differences will 

 be vastly augmented by the agencies at work. Thus it must be 

 that the conscious stage producing precision of action influences 

 the habitual condition of the unconscious stage. I laving applied 

 this to man, we may better conceive it, and form some notion of 

 its prodigious relative development by considering how man so 

 constituted has his power of thought enhanced by the great 

 instrument of speech. 



These causes contribute to the great differences which I long 

 since pointed out between the rapidity of thought of one man 

 and another, or of the same man at different times of life or 

 under various conditions. My paper " On the Geographical 

 Distribution of Intellectual Faculties in England," following one 

 at the British Association, being published in the Journal of the 

 Statistical Society (June, 1S71, p. 357), has escaped the notice 

 of psychologists and physiologists, being esteemed statistical, 

 whereas it is also psychological. At p. 357 I gave an account 

 of an experiment, snowing a fluctuation in conscious thought in 

 one adult of from I to 4, or 100 to 400, denoting an enormous 

 difference, and illustrative of the variations in mental power 

 which exist in society. If, however, we were to estimate a child 

 of 14 at 50, then the ratio would be as I to S. If we take a 

 child of 7 at the quarter of an adul', then we should have 1 to 

 16. These are not extreme measures, for in the babe we may 

 find I to 100, I to 200, I to 4C0. 



This is given as an illustration of what must exist in the animal 

 world "as to conscious thought, and that without reference to 

 unconscious thought, which must be the condition of many 

 classes. Physiologically the subject has been treated by many 

 physiologists, and notably most admirably by Dr. Carpenter; 

 but here the psychological aspect in the special forms indicated 

 is alone brought into prominence. 



The phenomena of unconscious thought, indeed, require much 

 greater attention. Not only do they underlie the distinctions 

 between animals and between animals and man, but they must 

 be taken into consideration as explanatory of dreams and of 

 many forms of mental disease. This has been partly dealt with 

 by Dr. Carpenter. 



While the later steps of dreams, the visible and pictorial stages, 

 are greatly under the influence of conscious thought, the early 

 stages are under the influence of unconscious thought. It appears 

 to me quite possible that unconscious thought is not altogether 

 latent in sleep. It is worthy of consideration what is the condi- 

 tion of a wakeful animal, say a dog — whether it is one succession 

 of dreams or a form like delirium. 



The recurrence of an error once implanted in the mind, not- 

 withstanding our efforts to eliminate or counteract i', 1 



dne to the tenacious resistance of unconscious thought, storing up 

 and reproducing the error. 



Heredity of thought, whether as dealt with by Mr. Francis 

 Galton or by myself in the paper quoted at p. 359, &c, may be 

 assigned chiefly to the transmission of the habits of unconscious 

 thought, if we consider more especially the condition of the 

 lower animals. 



As my last communication was mentioned in the Daily 

 Telegraph of November 29, and with the assertion that Dr. 

 Carpenter, Mr. C. T. Munro, and myself have provided in un- 

 conscious thought a new plea for unaccountability for criminal 

 actions, it is well to remark that the phenomena discussed have 

 no such bearing. Hyde Clarke 



December 20, 1879 



Stags' Horns 



THE disappearance of the antlers of stags, in the Highlands 

 and elsewhere, is to be accounted for by the fact that they are 

 saleable articles ; but although they do not assist as entremets at 

 the animal's meal it may happen that they assist — in the form of 

 knife-handles — in the distribution of his venison at our dinners. 



When a lad I obtained many antlers of the Fallow Deer from 

 a neighbouring park, the tines of which were sometimes broken 

 but never gnawed or polished by licking. 



It would scarcely be surprising that deer should crave for 

 calcareous matter during the rapid development of their antlers, 

 but neither are their tongues adapted for rasping nor their teeth 

 for comminuting hard bones. Paul Henry Stokoe 



Beddington Park 



No gillie that I know of has the honour of my acquaintance, 

 and therefore no gillie can know, save indirectly, that I have 

 picked up a horn of the red deer, in a park near Sheffield ! I was 

 told at the time by the gardener who accompanied me that these 

 horns were eagerly sought after by the Sheffield knife-makers 

 for the purpose of making bucks' horn knife-handles. 



1 P M. T. M. 



A Query 



I have seen somewhere (but I am unable to say where) a 

 statement to the effect that there is some evidence for the suppo- 

 sition that in the crystallising state of matter the forces between 

 molecule and molecule are not directed in the light lines joining 

 the molecules. Can any of your readers throw light on this 

 subject, or give references to sources of information about any 

 other case in which the mutual action of two molecules is not 

 directed in the line joining them? Ignoramus 



THE ASSERTED ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION 

 OF THE DIAMOND 



PROF. MASKELYNE sends us the following letter 

 on this subject : — 



I should be obliged if you would accord me space 

 in one of your columns in order that I may answer a 

 great number of letters and applications which have pur- 

 sued me during the past few days on a subject of some 

 little public interest, that subject being the asserted 

 formation of diamonds by a gentleman at Glasgow. 



Some ten davs ago I had heard nothing whatever of the 

 claim of Mr. Mactear, of the St. Rollox Works, Glasgow, 

 to the artificial production of the diamond. 



My name, however, was already in several newspapers 

 as that of a person in whose hands the asserted diamonds 

 had been placed for a decision as to their true nature. 

 Ultimately a small watch-glass with a few microscopic 

 crystalline particles came into my hands for this purpose 

 from Mr. Warington Smyth, and subsequently a supply 

 came to me direct from Mr. Mactear. I shall proceed to 

 state the results I have obtained from the examination of 

 these. „ , . 



Out of the first supply I selected by far the largest 

 particle, one about theJ fl thof an inch in length, and it 

 may be that I wasted some time in experimenting on this 

 particle as it might not have been an authentic example 



