THE ANIMAL AND THE PUZZLE-BOX 



survival of the lost power. There is something like 

 a community of mind or of emotional states among 

 the lower orders, to which we are strangers, except 

 when, under extraordinary conditions, — as in the 

 frenzy of mobs and like unreasoning bodies, — we 

 relapse into a state of savage nature, and behave as 

 the wild creatures do. In such cases there is really 

 a community of mind and purpose. But birds in a 

 flock possess this oneness of mental states as a nor- 

 mal and everyday condition. Fish and insects in 

 vast numbers often show a like unity of instanta- 

 neous action. 



There is so much in animal behavior that is inter- 

 esting, and that throws light on our own psychology 

 and its origin, that one begrudges the time spent in 

 learning that dancing mice are deaf, or the numer- 

 ous data as to the tactual sensations of the white 

 rat, or " the relative strength of stimulus to rate of 

 learning in the chick," or the psychic reactions of 

 the crayfish, or cockroach, or angleworm, or grass- 

 hopper, unless they yield the key to some large 

 ■problem. We do not want elaborate experiments to 

 prove that frogs can hear — does not every school- 

 boy know that they can, and see, too? Though he 

 may not know that "there is some evidence that the 

 influence of auditory stimuli is most marked when 

 the drum is half-submerged in water," or that " the 

 influence upon tactual reactions is evident when the 

 frog is submerged in water to a depth of four centi- 

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