520 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 198. 



a theory oi Biogeneds. We are told on page 236 

 that the name was given to express the idea 

 ' that the origin of the complex organism is to 

 be explained from the properties of an elemen- 

 tary being, the cell.' If only it did express this ! 

 Frank R. Lillie. 

 Univeesity of Michigan. 



Animal Intelligence. By "Wesley Mills. New 



York, The Macmillan "Co. 1898. Pp. x 



+ 307. 



The first fifty pages of Professor Mills' book 

 are made up of certain theoretical discussions. 

 The rest consists in the main of reprints from 

 the Transactions, Royal Society of Canada^ al- 

 ready familiar to those who follow the progress 

 of animal psychology. In his theorizing Pro- 

 fessor Mills refuses the moderate attitude of 

 Lloyd Morgan, Wundt and other recent psy- 

 chologists and reverts to a position comparable 

 to that of Eomanes. He even calls Lindsay's 

 writings 'admirable.' Here is noplace to re- 

 fute his claims ; it will suffice to say that he 

 leaves the problem in the loose and unprofitable 

 form of more or less ' intelligence ' instead of 

 resolving it into definite questions about the 

 presence or absence of particular mental pro- 

 cesses. Moreover, he wastes his energy on 

 such straw men as the theory that all the actions 

 of animals are due to instinct or that human 

 minds were created especially of quite diflferent 

 stuff. One novelty in his discussion is the in- 

 sistence that human conceit makes men vinder- 

 rate animals' capacities. When one thinks of 

 the wide prevalence of animal-worship, of the 

 reverent eulogies of instinct so common in 

 books of the middle of this century, or of his 

 own experience of present opinion about ani- 

 mals, this notion of Professor Mills seems ex- 

 traordinarily perverse. I should say that we 

 naturally tend to do quite the opposite, to in- 

 terpret animals' acts by our own minds, and, 

 when any strange act appears, to explain it in 

 the most glorified way possible. 



The observations which are recorded in the 

 book concern the habits of squirrels, hibernation, 

 and the early life of dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea- 

 pigs, pigeons and chicks. Such records are of 

 the greatest value, and to Professor Mills is due 

 the credit of doing more of such work, I sup- 



pose, than any one else has yet done. The de- 

 velopment of the sense-powers, the presence of 

 instinctive reactions of various sorts, the corre- 

 lation of physical growth with mental develop- 

 ment, the formation of habits — data concerning 

 all these are given. One could praise them un- 

 reservedly were it not for Professor Mills' habit 

 of occasionally mixing up opinion with observa- 

 tion. On page 139, for instance, he says: " I 

 notice that the precocious bitch acts towards 

 the whip much as an old dog or a half-grown 

 one often does. This is difiicult to describe. 

 The animal shows that it understands what its 

 relations are, but seems to combine a sort of 

 pleading with humor." The last sentence is a 

 good record of Professor Mills' attitude toward 

 animal psychology, but it is worthless as far as 

 concerns the dog. In harmony with his general 

 theory Professor Mills finds in these young ani- 

 mals signs of reasoning, a moral sense and a 

 sense of humor. Many would interpret these 

 signs very differently. 



In closing I wish to say a little about the obser- 

 vational method of studying animal psychology. 

 Without forgetting a single one from among its 

 advantages, the fact remains that, unless you 

 practice continuous observation from birth, you 

 do not get complete control of the animal's ex- 

 perience. Actions which you observe in one 

 hour out of the twenty-four may be due to ex- 

 perience acquired during the remaining twenty- 

 three. The meaning of phenomena is also often 

 dubious. Why then neglect specific experi- 

 ments, even if you have to use unnatural sur- 

 roundings? It would seem that if Professor 

 Mills had used a part of his time in making 

 crucial experiments to decide definite questions, 

 he would at least have had a means of checking 

 his other results. Finally, I would beg that any- 

 one who is studying animal psychology to throw 

 light on the human mind, to leave the poor dogs 

 and cats and guinea-pigs and above all the 

 favorite chicken, to feel their feelings in peace 

 and devote himself to the monkeys. Since 

 Hubrecht has shown how early the primate 

 stock split off, it seems far-fetched to call a dog- 

 mind and cat-mind an ancestor in any sense of 

 the human. 



Edward L. Thorndike. 



Western Reserve University. 



