82 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



can protect himself and provide for himself without its 

 aid. He forgets that his own supreme intelligence is 

 not of his own creation — that it is the slow growth of 

 centuries and that he can no more rightfully repudiate 

 the debt which he owes to those who have gone before 

 him, than an animal can ignore the qualities and habits 

 of his ancestors. Man can alter, change, vary, more 

 quickly than the lower forms of animal life, for the 

 reason that his intelligence is so much greater. But 

 when animals show this adaptability also there is no 

 reason why we should deny them the possession of that 

 intelligence which makes adaptability possible in us, 

 simply because they exhibit it in a less degree. The 

 kind is the same — it is the proportions that are unequal. 



I do not think that this admission will, in the least, 

 alter the supremacy of man — a supremacy so unques- 

 tioned — that one of the few things to make us doubt it 

 is when he either lacks the generosity or the courage to 

 do justice to those creatures that are so far below him. 



If this admission will cause us to look more kindly 

 upon these humble creatures, to remember that ill-usage 

 whether by word or deed, hurts them as well as our- 

 selves, and to do away in any degree with their wanton 

 and cruel destruction, simply for the sake of killing, 

 some good will then have been accomplished and a step 

 taken towards a truer appreciation of these dumb friends 

 of ours. 



At the conclusion of the paper it was discussed by 

 Members Dwight, Pelton, Cooley, C. N. and F. S. 

 Arnold. C. C. Graines was elected an active member of 

 the section. 



38 



