Mental Processes in Animals. 363 



phenomena, the formation of isolates, and therefore the 

 employment of reason (as I have above defined it) . In doing 

 this, I shall seem to differ very widely from Mr. Eomanes 

 and other interpreters of animal habits and intelligence. 

 But I believe that the divergence is less wide than it 

 seems. I believe that it is largely, but I fear not entirely, 

 a question of the terms we employ. 



Why, then, rediscuss the question under these new 

 terms? Because I believe that such rediscussion may 

 place the matter in a fresh and, perhaps, clearer light. 

 The question of the relation of animal intelligence to 

 human reason is one upon which there is a good deal of 

 disagreement, and one that has been discussed and re- 

 discussed. I seek to put it in a somewhat new light. I 

 have endeavoured to define carefully and accurately the 

 terms I use, and the sense in which I use them. I have 

 coined for my own purposes unfamiliar terms such as 

 "construct," "isolate," and "predominant," that I might 

 thereby be enabled to avoid the use of terms which, from 

 the different senses in which they are employed by different 

 writers, have become invested with a certain ambiguity. 

 I trust, therefore, that even those with whom I seem most 

 to disagree will allow that my aim has not been mere 

 disputation, but scientific accuracy and precision in a 

 difficult subject where these qualities are of essential 

 importance. 



I take first some observations communicated by Mr. 

 H. L. Jenkins to Mr. Eomanes, since, though they raise a 

 point which we have already shortly considered, they form 

 a transition from unconscious to perceptual inferences. 

 Speaking of the intelligence of the elephant, Mr. Jenkins 

 says,* " What I particularly wish to observe is that there 

 are good grounds for supposing that elephants possess 

 abstract ideas ; for instance, I think it is impossible to 

 doubt that they acquire, through their own experience, 

 notions of hardness and weight." He then details obser- 

 vations which show that elephants at first hand up things 

 * Romanes, "Animal Intelligence," p. 401. 



