ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC, 725 



" We conclude," be said, " with a definite issue — viz. by experiment 

 it is establisbed that living forms do not now arise in dead matter. 

 And by study of the forms themselves it is proved that, like all the 

 more complex forms above them, they arise in parental products. 

 The law is as ever, only the living can give rise to the living." 



Intelligence in the Lowest Animals.* — " No one," writes Dr. G. 

 J. Eomanes, " can have watched the movements of certain Infusoria 

 without feeling it difficult to believe that these little animals are not 

 actuated by some amount of intelligence. Even if the manner in 

 ■which they avoid collisions be attributed entirely to repulsions set up 

 in the currents which by their movements they create, any such 

 mechanical explanation certainly cannot apply to the small creatures 

 seeking one another for the purposes of prey, reproduction, or as it 

 sometimes seems, of mere sport. There is a common and well-known 

 rotifer whose body is of a cup shape provided with a very active tail, 

 which is armed at its extremity with strong forceps. I have seen a 

 small specimen of this rotifer seize a much larger one with its forceps 

 and attach itself by this means to the side of the cup. The large 

 rotifer at once became very active, and swinging about with its burden 

 until it came to a piece of weed, it took firm hold of the weed with its 

 own forceps, and began the most extraordinary series of movements, 

 which were obviously directed towards ridding itself of its encum- 

 brance. It dashed from side to side in all directions with a vigour 

 and suddenness which were highly astonishing, so that it seemed as if 

 the animalcule would either break its forceps or wrench its tail from 

 its body. No movements could possibly be better suited to jerk off 

 the offending object, for the energy with which the jerks were given, 

 now in one direction and now in another, were, as I have said, most 

 surprising. But not less surprising was the tenacity with which the 

 smaller rotifer retained its hold. . . . This trial of strength, which 

 must have involved an immense expenditure of energy in proportion 

 to the size of the animals, lasted for several minutes, till eventually 

 the small rotifer was thrown violently away. It then returned to the 

 conflict, but did not succeed a second time in establishing its hold. 

 The entire scene was as like intelligent action on the part of both 

 animals as could well be imagined, so that if we were to dej)end 

 upon appearances alone, this one observation would be sufficient to 

 induce me to attribute conscious determination to these microscopical 

 organisms. 



But without denying that conscious determination may have been 

 present, or involving ourselves in the impossible task of proving such 

 a negative, we may properly affii-m that until an animalcule shows 

 itself to be teachable by individual experience wo have no sufficient 

 evidence derived or derivable from any number of such apparently 

 intelligent movements that conscious determination is present. 

 Therefore I need not wait to quote the observations of the sundry 

 microscopists who detail facts more or less similar to the above, with 

 expressions of their belief that microscopical organisms disi)lay a 



♦ 'Animal Intelligence,' 8vo, London, 1882. 



