THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 723.— September, 1901. 



BIOLOGICAL SUGGESTIONS. 



ANIMAL SENSE PEECEPTIONS. 



By W. L. Distant. 



Whether Bees are susceptible of feeUng and capable of thought is a 

 question which cannot be dogmatically answered. — Huxley. 



It is indeed still not infrequently the custom to deny absolutely to the 

 lower animals reason and religion. — Haeckel. 



It is, I think, generally assiimed not only that the world really exists as 

 we see it, but that it appears to other animals pretty much as it does to us. 

 A little consideration, however, is sufficient to show that this is very far from 

 being certain, or even probable. — Lord Avebury (Sir John Lubbock). 



Underlying all our conceptions of Animal Mimicry and Pro- 

 tective Resemblance is the predicate that other animals see the 

 various objects of nature in similar size, shape, and colour as we 

 do ourselves ; in other words, that, though the sensory organs of 

 sight may vary, the practical result is still identical. The same 

 remark applies in a general way to a belief in a more or less uni- 

 versal and similar sensation of touch, smell, taste, and hearing, 

 though on examination it is surprising to find how little positive 

 information exists to warrant the conclusion, even though it may 

 be an absolute fact. If Berkeley asl'ed the old materialistic 

 philosophers whether they could prove the existence of a material 

 world external to the mind, may we not also ask for some more 

 definite proof of the unity and similarity in the sense perception 



ZooL. 4th ser. vol, V., September, 1901. 2 c 



