96 Animal Intelligence 
plexity that only this out-and-out kind of imitation can ex- 
plain the fact, we have located one great advance in mental 
development. ‘Till the primates we get practically nothing 
but instincts and individual acquirement through impul- 
sive trial and error. Among the primates we get also ac- 
quisition by imitation, one form of the increase of mental 
equipment by tradition. The child may learn from the 
parent quickly without the tiresome process of seeing for 
himself. The less active and less curious may share the 
progress of their superiors. [The brain whose impulses 
hitherto could only be dislodged by specific sense-impres- 
sions may now have any impulse set agoing by the sight of 
the movement to which it corresponds. | 
| All this on the common supposition that the primates do 
imitate, that a monkey in the place of these cats and dogs 
would have pulled the string. My apology for leaving the 
matter in this way without experiments of my own is that 
the monkey which I procured for just this purpose failed in 
two months to become tame enough to be thus experimented 
on. Accurate information about the nature and extent of 
imitation among the primates should be the first aim of 
further work in comparative psychology, and will be sought 
by the present writer as soon as he can get subjects fit for 
experiments. | 
Ina questionnaire which was sent to fifteen animal trainers, 
the following questions were asked : — 
1. “If one dog was in the habit of ‘begging ’ to get food and 
another dog saw him do it ten or twenty times, would the second 
dog then beg himself ?” 
2. “In general is it easier for you to teach a cat or dog a trick 
if he has seen another do it ?” 
3. “In general do cats imitate each other? Do dogs? Do 
monkeys ? ” 
