36 



JOSEPH PETERSON 

 TABLE IV— Continued 



It may be that the odor of the food is a factor that at least 

 partly explains the more easy elimination of the cul de sacs 

 nearer the food box. However, there is very little, if any, real 

 evidence that such is the case. A crucial test would be to use 

 anosmic rats, though other means of controlling the odor factor 

 are easily possible. Some facts in the present experiment count 

 against the influence of odor as suggested. For example, errors 

 of entrance into cul de sac 10 are nearly as numerous as those 

 of entrance into 9, although to get to 10 the animal had to pass 

 a short alley of 8.5 inches leading directly into the food box. 

 Moreover, all the rats, with occasional exceptions, 18 ran so 

 rapidly after the first trial that it is improbable that food odor 

 had any immediate direct influence in the behavior in the maze. 

 There was no evidence in the behavior of the animals that they 

 were attracted to the food box by such odors. 19 In the cases 

 of supposed trailing, already noted, the animal which appeared 



18 Occasionally, without any apparent external condition to explain the behavior, 

 an animal would sneak slowly and cautiously all the way through the maze. In 

 a few cases such activity seemed to be due to recent fights with other rats or to 

 noises from fights between other animals. 



10 An exception should be made here of the case of returns from cul de sac 8, already 

 discussed. The floor of the food box was covered with paper (double thickness) 

 during the feeding each day, and during the experiment the food was kept in a 

 dish in the extreme corner of the food box away from cul de sacs 8, 9, and 10. 



