662 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Dec. 28, I? 



at different stations. Thus the magnitude and the 

 frequency of the rises and falls of temperature must 

 rank among local phenomena. The lowest mean varia- 

 tions of temperature on the Sonnblick is in January and 

 May, whilst at the same time great fluctuations occur at 

 Rauris and Ischl. 



In winter and autumn the cloudiness is greater in the 

 low grounds than at the high Alpine stations. In spring 

 and summer the summits are more overcast. In spring, 

 summer, and autumn the frequency of sunshine on the 

 Sonnblick falls earlier in the day than in the lower 

 grounds. At this elevation in summer the greatest 

 frequency of sunshine occurs between 8 and 10 a.m., and 

 then rapidly decreases. This is evidently due to the 

 influence of the ascending air current, which forms 

 clouds and mists on the summits as soon as the 

 valleys become heated. On the heights the afternoon 

 sun is therefore a cause of cloudiness, whilst in the low 

 grounds it dissolves the clouds. 



On the Sonnblick the predominating winds are the 

 south-west and the north, whilst in the valleys the west 

 and north-east predominate. Calms are very rare. In 

 the valleys calms occurred in thirty-five per cent, of the 

 observations, but on the Sonnblick only two per cent. 



RATIONALITY IN THE LOWER 

 ANIMALS. 



WE often hear discussions on the question whether 

 or not the lower animals possess any share of 

 reason, or, in other words, whether they differ from us 

 in degree or in nature ? The affirmative side is taken 

 chiefly by working naturalists ; those who make actual 

 observations on our " poor relations " in the woods, the 

 fields, or in default in menageries. The negative view 

 is upheld for the most part by metaphysicians, who con- 

 vince themselves on a priori grounds that " brutes " 

 cannot reason, and who wave aside every appeal to facts 

 as an impertinence. 



We think that a novel argument may be drawn from 

 facts which are admitted without dispute, but the bear- 

 ing of which has not been fully recognised. 

 — It may at the first sight appear extremely paradoxical 

 if we adduce superstitious fears, in man or beast, as a 

 paradox, since most persons would at once pronounce 

 superstitions as a proof, more or less complete, of 

 irrationality. But yet we shall see, on close examina- 

 tion, that in the entire absence of reason superstition 

 could not exist. 



Let us suppose Giles the ploughboy, or any other 

 similarly uncultured individual, is plodding his weary 

 way homewards after his daily toil. He sees a field- 

 mouse hurry across the path, or a crow stalking along 

 the newly turned-up furrows. He will feel no surprise 

 and will take no more notice of either animal than, per- 

 haps, to fling a stone at it. Wherefore ? Because the 

 fact that living animals are capable of voluntary move- 

 ment is part and parcel of his own daily experience, and 

 because he has always heard them spoken of as capable 

 of such movement. But what if he should see an old 

 bone, a stick, or a stone, in short, any lifeless object 

 moving regularly and continuously along a level piece of 

 ground, and suppose he should be unable on looking 

 more closely to detect any agency by which it was 

 pushed or drawn? His curiosity would be unpleasantly 

 roused ; he would feel uneasy, and if he saw no chanee 



of trickery he would suspect the interference of some 

 supernatural, or at least extra-natural agency. But why 

 should he thus feel disturbed in mind ? Because he 

 has in his mind a rough notion of a certain order of 

 nature, any departure from which strikes him at once as 

 uncanny. His life experience and the traditional ex- 

 perience of his parents, neighbours, and associates tell 

 him that only living animals are capable of spontaneous 

 movement. If, then, he sees such movements on the 

 part of a portion of lifeless matter he feels that the 

 boundaries of his experience are transcended, and that 

 he is in presence of unknown forces. His idea of an 

 order of nature is the key to his feeling of mystery and 

 awe, or, if we prefer the expression, to his superstitions. 

 Were he incapable of forming such a concept all 

 phenomena would seem to him equally matters ot 

 course, and he would be incapable of the feeling of 

 mystery. 



Now, this very power on the part of man of conceiving 

 of an order of Nature, of a normal course of things, has 

 always been accepted as evidence of human rationality. 

 It presupposes not merely the power of observation, but 

 of generalising from the facts observed. If, therefore, 

 we find in the lower animals instances of superstition, of 

 uneasiness apart from the feeling of danger, we are driven 

 to the conclusion that they, too, conceive of a normal 

 order of things, that they recognise any departure from 

 such order, and are, therefore, in so far rational. 



Some of the most striking instances of brute supersti- 

 tion have been observed in dogs. We were once witness 

 to an instance of this kind. A dyer in a northern town had 

 a very white fleecy poodle, and from some freak he dyed 

 the animal a rich, full shade of magenta. As he was go- 

 ing along the street of his village, attended by the poodle, 

 a notoriously pugnacious terrier ran up to accost the 

 stranger, perhaps in peace or perhaps in war. But as 

 soon as he came near enough fully to recognise the un- 

 dog-like hue of the poodle, he stood to gaze a moment 

 and then fled as fast as his legs could carry him. His 

 notions of the fitness of things had received a rude shock. 



We once knew of a dog named Tab, by no means 

 deficient in intelligence, who was always greatly alarmed 

 at a thunder-storm, so much as to be rendered positively 

 ill. It is difficult to ascribe this fright to the dread of 

 bodily injury. 



Much more striking instances of this kind are on re- 

 cord. A very vicious terrier was once just on the point 

 of attacking a performing monkey, when the latter took 

 off his cocked hat and saluted him very gracefully. The 

 dog at once bolted under some shrubs and would not re- 

 appear until the monkey and its owner had left the pre- 

 mises. Such facts which have been collected and recorded 

 by Dr. G. J. Romanes are utterly inexplicable unless we 

 admit that the dogs have deduced from their experience 

 some rude idea of an order of Nature, of which the 

 instances given are violations. In all probability such 

 cases show that brutes are able to sum up their obser- 

 vations in the form of general propositions. 



The First Appearance of Germanic Tribes in 

 Europe. — According to Montelius {Arc/iiv. fur Anthro- 

 pologic) the immigration of these tribes took place towards 

 the end of the Stone epoch, about 4,000 years before our 

 era. He supposes that they came along the cost of the 

 Black Sea, and penetrated into Gothland by way of 

 Denmark. 



