Mat 13, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



747 



on the whole, scarcely to be regretted, for 

 interest was through this sympathetic bond 

 awakened, and prepared the way for that 

 critical investigation of animal psychology 

 which at an earlier period would have been 

 premature. 



Naturalists at a time prior to what may 

 be termed the laboratory period, had noted 

 the habits of animals with loving interest, 

 but had not subjected them to a very crit- 

 ical analysis, and certainly had scarcely 

 dreamed of correlating the mental life of 

 even the highest groups of animals with 

 that of man. Darwin had set the example 

 of investigating the mental life of animals 

 and of man by the same method of close 

 observation. A study of his dog and a 

 study of his child were to him of equal 

 interest scientifically, and his records re- 

 main among the most valuable of their kind 

 to this day. 



Sir John Lubbock soon followed with 

 admirable studies of insects. Huxley re- 

 mained the critic, and his attitude in re- 

 gard to animal intelligence is one of the 

 features of that great man's mental char- 

 acter not readily understood. To think 

 that so pronounced an evolutionist should 

 have held views not greatly different from 

 those of Descartes is truly surprising. 

 Lubbock had worthy fellow workers in 

 McCook, Forel, the Peckhams and others. 

 Probably no man did more, in Great Brit- 

 ain at all events, to stimulate the interest 

 not only of scientists, but of that large body 

 of people who read to a greater or less ex- 

 tent the more popular of the scientific jour- 

 nals, than Romanes. He was in a position 

 to devote much time to the subject, and his 

 numerous letters and the replies they called 

 forth in Nature have been among the most 

 telling influences of our own time in ad- 

 vancing this subject. He has embodied 

 his views in works, that in spite of all the 

 destructive criticism of the last half dozen 

 years remain valuable both as storehouses 



of fact and as examples of helpful critical 

 analysis. 



Within at the most ten years another 

 great change has taken place. The biol- 

 ogists began to be more accurate, systematic 

 and comparative in their observations ; and, 

 most important of all, a different class of 

 thinkers entered the field. If the biologists 

 can be compared to the spearmen or the 

 axemen of the army, the psychologists are 

 the bowmen. They brought to the task, 

 at all events, more skill in mental analysis 

 and, perhaps, a clearer comprehension of 

 the problems to be solved. They were, 

 moreover, better prepared to correlate the 

 data of animal and human psychology and 

 find what was common to both, as well as 

 draw sharp lines of distinction, if, indeed, 

 such lines can be drawn. If, on the one 

 hand, the naturalists had been spasmodic, 

 unsystematic and rather loose in their con- 

 tributions and superficial in their analyses, 

 the psychologists showed a tendency to 

 substitute words and definitions for real- 

 ities. Armchair animal psychology has 

 no doubt been evolved from insufficient 

 data — an affair of words rather than of 

 things — nevertheless, great good has re- 

 sulted for all, as we have been brought to 

 what may be termed the experimental and 

 critical age of comparative psychology. 



It was most fortunate that, as successor 

 to Romanes in Great Britain, the subject 

 should have been taken up by a man so 

 thoroughly prepared for his task as Lloyd 

 Morgan, who is at once a biologist, a psy- 

 chologist and a master of the pen. His 

 works, in spite of the critical acumen they 

 show, can be read by any one with a 

 moderate knowledge of biology and a sym- 

 pathy with the subject of animal intel- 

 ligence. And that has given them a wide 

 circulation, a most important matter for 

 the education of large numbers of persons 

 to broader and truer views of the relations 

 of man and his fellow creatures. This is 



