Translation from Von Hartmann 117 



this last kind is little feared by cattle, while the first is so 

 to an inordinate extent. The laying of the eggs upon the 

 skin is at the time quite painless, and no ill consequences 

 follow until long afterwards, so that we cannot suppose 

 the cattle to draw a conscious inference concerning the 

 connection that exists between the two. I have already 

 spoken of the foresight shown by ferrets and buzzards in 

 respect of adders ; in like manner a young honey-buzzard, 

 on being shown a wasp for the first time, immediately 

 devoured it after having squeezed the sting from its body. 

 No animal, whose instinct has not been vitiated by un- 

 natural habits, will eat poisonous plants. Even when 

 apes have contracted bad habits through their having 

 been brought into contact with mankind, they can still 

 be trusted to show us whether certain fruits found in their 

 native forests are poisonous or no ; for if poisonous fruits 

 are offered them they will refuse them with loud cries. 

 Every animal will choose for its sustenance exactly those 

 animal or vegetable substances which agree best with 

 its digestive organs, without having received any instruc- 

 tion on the matter, and without testing them before- 

 hand. Even, indeed, though we assume that the power 

 of distinguishing the different kinds of food is due to 

 sight and not to smell, it remains none the less mysterious 

 how the animal can know what it is that will agree with 

 it. Thus the kid which Galen took prematurely from its 

 mother smelt at all the different kinds of food that were 

 set before it, but drank only the milk without touching 

 anything else. The cherry-finch opens a cherry-stone by 

 turning it so that her beak can hit the part where the 

 two sides join, and does this as much with the first stone 

 she cracks as with the last. Fitchets, martens, and weasels 

 make small holes on the opposite sides of an egg which 

 they are about to suck, so that the air may come in while 

 they are sucking. Not only do animals know the food 

 that will suit them best, but they find out the most suit- 

 able remedies when they are ill, and constantly form a 



