494 Canadian Record of Science. 



evolution. If the theory will not square with the facts, so 

 much the worse for the theory. 



Dr. Mills' devotion to science is exhibited not only in the 

 time and patient labour he has bestowed upon it, but also in 

 the expenditure to which he has gone in its interest. It was 

 Agassiz who said that he had not time to make money. But 

 Prof. "Wesley Mills is not only indifferent to the making of 

 money, which he deems an aim beneath a philosopher ; what 

 little he has or earns he spends largely on the prosecution of 

 scientific investigations. These long continued observa,ticns 

 on animals could be carried on only at great expense : but 

 he has borne it willingly, and how could filthy lucre be laid 

 out to better purpose ? And he is amply repaid by the results 

 achieved; no chapters in human biography are more interesting 

 than his diaries of dogs and cats, and squirrels, and rabbits. 

 What he does not know of dogs especially is not worth 

 knowing. 



The main thesis he sets out to establish is that brute 

 creatures have mind ; and he has undoubtedly made it good. 

 Of course, this is no new claim put forth on behalf of the 

 lower creation. Long ago, unthrifty people were sent to the 

 ants to learn lessons of prudence ; mental qualities being 

 predicated of them which the sluggard was to emulate. Viigil 

 and Ovid wrote about the domestic bee in a way which showed 

 what high mental qualities that active little creature 

 possessed. No one of an observing turn of mind who has had 

 much to do with domestic animals will deny them the 

 possession of reasoning powers. As the author properly main- 

 tains, most of the lower creatures in some one or more 

 particulars, show greater mentality than man himself. The 

 faculty of memory is specially highly developed in several of 

 them. Whether there is any means by which the different 

 genera can hold intercommunication or not, there can be 

 little question but that there are signs and sounds employed 

 by which the same species can hold converse together — the 

 equivalent of speech among men. Rev. James George, D.D., 

 Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Queen's College, 

 Kingston, when the writer was a student in that institution, 

 nearly fifty years ago — a most original thinker and an inspir- 

 ing teacher — did not hesitate to give forth that the brutes 

 have mind ; no matter what consequences the admission 

 might lead to, and this before " The Origin of Species " was 

 written. But he went beyond allowing them to be possessed 

 of mental faculties, although he held that such capacities 



