1892.] Mental Evolution in Man and Lower Animals. 489 



flowers. I know now that these plants belong to the genus 

 Cornus, but I did not ascertain this fact for many months, 

 and in the mean time I thought of these plants in picture* in 

 which I was vividly conscious of their peculiarities. And 

 where the mind is unable to avail itself of articulate language, 

 this faculty of thinking in pictures may be carried to a point 

 far beyond what we may imagine credible; just as the tying 

 of knots in strings in a particular fashion served as whole 

 books of history to the Peruvian Indians who were unac- 

 quainted with writing. 



Moreover though unable themselves to employ articulate 

 language, the higher animals have the mental advantage of 

 being able to understand and remember spoken words. 



It is estimated that the more intelligent elephants in 

 government employ in India and Ceylon understand more 

 than eighty words and phrases addressed to them by their 

 keepers. This statement is the more credible when we con- 

 sider the diversity of occupations in which trained elephant- 

 are engaged. The most striking instance I know of bearing 

 on the reasoning powers of these sagacious animals is given 

 in Mr. Romanes' work on Animal Intelligence, 1 on the authority 

 of Mr. Bingley. 



" In the last war in India a young elephant received a 

 violent wound in its head, the pain of which rendered it so 

 frantic and ungovernable that it was found impossible to per- 

 suade the animal to have the part dressed. Whenever any one 

 approached, it ran off with fury, and would suffer no person 

 to come within several yards of it. The man who had care 

 of it at length hit upon a contrivance for securing it. By a 

 few words and signs he gave the mother of the animal suffi- 

 cient intelligence of what was wanted ; the sensible creature 

 immediately seized her young one with her trunk and held 

 it firmly down, though groaning with agony, while the sur- 

 geon completely dressed the wound; and she continued 

 to perform this service until the animal was perfectly 

 recovered." When we consider the passionate devotion of 

 the female elephant to her young one, and the fury Willi 



