CORRESP ONDENCE. 



409 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



AWAKENING THOUGHT. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



YOUR article upon " Learning to think," 

 in the April number of your magazine, 

 treats upon a great need. 



To make it yet more helpful to those who 

 wish to know how to ask questions, either to 

 awaken thought or to elicit information 

 from others, will you kindly suggest, in a 

 future number, some leading "questions ar- 

 ranged under certain categories," for further 

 instruction by way of example ? 



In behalf, I believe, of many educators, 



A Moxhek. 

 Worcesibe, Mass., May 1, 1S89. 



ANIMAL ALTRUISM. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



In G. J. Romanes's chart of the " De- 

 rivative Origin of the Human Mind " * he 

 marks " Sympathy " in the scale on the level 

 or line 24 with " communication of ideas," 

 on which level or line is also placed " Hy- 

 menoptera." 



The writer has not studied Mr. Romanes 

 enough to understand his chart, and there- 

 fore can not see why the Hymenoptera are 

 there placed, except it be that in that class 

 of insects the communication of ideas is 

 earliest seen. He does not note altruism in 

 the chart. 



It seems to me altruism is allied to 

 "sympathy," and to the maternal faculty 

 of affection. At first thought it seemed as 

 if altruism might be the outgrowth of mater- 

 nal love and regard. But two instances of 

 its manifestation in members of a colony of 

 domestic fowls appear to be adverse to that 

 conclusion. These may be described in de- 

 tail. 



A relative of the writer, Mrs. R , of 



Stockton, was occupied in 1881 with the care 

 and study of several dozen chickens. One 

 day she was feeding them meat cut in small 

 pieces, and most of her feathered family 

 gathered around and fed from her hand. 

 But one little white pullet was too timid to 

 come up and get her portion. A strong 

 gray chicken, nearly full grown, and which 

 sustained no family kinship to the other, 

 seemed to observe and take in the forlorn 

 situation of the one standing back, began to 

 fight, and tried to drive away the cluster, as 

 if to make room for the lagging associate. 

 But it did not stir or move toward the feed- 

 ing group. The gray, failing in that effort, 

 boldly came forward, took a fragment of 

 meat, carried it to the hungry chicken and 



* "Popular Science Monthly," April, 1889. 



dropped it at its feet, and then moved away, 

 as if it had done a useful and friendly 

 act. 



On another and subsequent occasion, Mrs. 



R was again feeding her poultry from 



her hand. As she appeared, they hurried 

 out from under a sheltered retreat, and with 

 natural eagerness each swallowed its coveted 

 portion. But one Black Spanish member 

 timidly remained behind under cover, though 

 in sight. After devouring a few pieces of 

 meat, a vigorous brown Leghorn seized a 

 good-sized piece, ran to a corner, and hid it. 

 She then went to the retreat and induced the 

 backward party to go out. They two went 

 to the place of concealed store, when the 

 Leghorn brought forth the reserved morsel 

 of meat and dropped it before her companion, 

 which at once accepted the gift. 



Here are two examples of the altruistic 

 faculty developed in members of the body 

 politic of domestic fowls. As these in- 

 stances are found in young individuals 

 wherein the maternal faculty of love and re- 

 gard for offspring has never been called in 

 action, must we not conclude that altruism 

 in them is an outgrowth of energies remote 

 from the maternal characteristic ? The im- 

 mediate mother of those chickens was the 

 incubator. 



It is of interest to determine how early 

 in the growth of mind altruism can be per- 

 ceived. A. S. Hudson, M. D. 



Stockton, Cal., April 1, 1889. 



DO CATTLE COUNT? 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Reading, not long ago, a sketch in our 

 local paper, entitled " Can Animals count ? " 

 said to have been taken from " The Popular 

 Science Monthly," recalls to my mind an 

 incident that I have heard my father relate. 



My grandfather Butterfield kept a hotel 

 on the Green Mountains, five miles from 

 Manchester, Vermont, more than a hundred 

 years ago. It was his custom to salt his 

 cattle every Sunday morning. 



After vegetation started in the spring he 

 would turn his young stock into the forest to 

 get their living, being short of cleared past- 

 urage. 



These cattle would remain away a week, 

 but would invariably come to the barn every 

 Sunday for their salt, and after eating it 

 would return to the woods again. 



Now, if this does not prove that animals 

 can count, it proves that they are creatures 

 of very regular habits. 



Susan M. B. Staplin. 

 Mannsville, Jefferson County, N. T. 



