68 Animal Intelligence 
by accident. They certainly do. | In this investigation 
choice was made of the intelligent performances described 
by Romanes in the following passages. I shall quote at 
some length because these passages give an admirable 
illustration of an attitude of investigation which this re- 
search will, I hope, render impossible for any scientist in. 
the future. Speaking of the general intelligence of cats, 
“Romanes says: 
“Thus, for instance, while I have only heard of one solitary 
case . . . of a dog which, without tuition, divined the use of a 
thumb latch so as to open a closed door by jumping on the handle 
and depressing the thumb-piece, I have received some half- 
dozen instances of this display of intelligence on the part of 
cats. These instances are all such precise repetitions of one 
another that I conclude the fact to be one of tolerably ordinary 
occurrence among cats, while it is certainly rare among dogs. 
I may add that my own coachman once had a cat which, cer- 
tainly without tuition, learnt thus to open a door that led into 
the stables from a yard into which looked some of the windows 
of the house. Standing at these windows when the cat did not 
see me, I have many times witnessed her modus operandi. 
Walking up to the door with a most matter-of-course kind of air, 
she used to spring at the half hoop handle just below the thumb 
latch. Holding on to the bottom of this half-hoop with one 
fore paw, she then raised the other to the thumb piece, and 
while depressing -the latter finally with her hind legs scratched 
and pushed the door posts so as to open the door. . . . 
“Of course in all such cases the cats must have previously 
observed that the doors are opened by persons placing their 
hands upon the handles and, having observed this, the animals 
act by what may be strictly termed rational imitation. But 
it should be observed that the process as a whole is something 
more than imitative. For not only would observation alone be 
scarcely enough (within any limits of thoughtful reflection that 
