LEAF AND TENDRIL 



tance of keeping the centre within the base. Throw 

 this brainless frog into the water, and it swims as 

 well as ever it did. Dan Beard, in his delightful 

 "Animal Book," says that a rattlesnake which had 

 just had its head cut off, coiled and struck him with 

 the bloody stump when he touched it as promptly 

 as it would have done with its head on. So it is 

 doubtless true that all creatures do many reasonable 

 and natural things without possessing the faculty 

 of reason. Much of our own conduct in life is the 

 result of this same unconscious, unreasoning obedi- 

 ence to natural forces or innate tendencies. 



The English psychologist Hobhouse gives an 

 account, in his work on "Mind and Evolution," 

 of the experiments he tried with cats, dogs, mon- 

 keys, an otter, and an elephant, to test their intelli- 

 gence. Their food was placed in boxes or jars, or 

 tied to a string, in such ways that to get at it the 

 animal had to do certain definite concrete things 

 that it could not have been called upon to do in 

 the ordinary course of its natural life, such as pull- 

 ing strings, working levers, drawing bolts, lifting 

 latches, opening drawers, upsetting jugs, always 

 stimulated by the prospect of food. After many 

 trials at the various tricks, a little gleam of intel- 

 ligence seemed to pass through their minds. It 

 was as if a man without power to move should 

 finally feebly lift a hand or shake his head. The ele- 

 phant was taught to pull a bolt and open the lid 

 160 



