36 Recent Literature. [January, 



ubject which needs great candor and 

 re is a great difference of opinion 

 the subject of animal psychology, 

 and the student should, at the outset, know that the entire sub- 

 ject is unsettled, and that there are two predominant schools of 

 thought. If he knows this, and that the matter may eventually 

 be somewhat understood by future work, he will, perhaps, be led 

 to make for himself new discoveries and observations on the 

 habits and mental traits of animals, and gain clearer views of the 

 entire field of comparative psychology. To make the ex cathedra 

 statement that instinct is a " special faculty," or " a power of 

 blindly performing appropriate complex acts, by seemingly volun- 

 tary actions in response to felt stimuli," and then in footnotes to 

 attack what he deems the " very singular views " of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer and Mr. Lewes, as if they were alone in attempting to 

 reason out the probable origin of instinctive acts ; this, we con- 

 tend, savors of dogmatism and onesidedness, and it seems to us 

 that in an educational book of this sort both the old and the new 

 views should be given to the student, who is supposed to have 

 arrived at years of discretion, and to be able, in a degree, to judge 

 for himself between conflicting theories. 



Mr. Mivart also insists, as if it were a matter of course, that an 

 animal " is really the theatre of some unifying power which syn- 

 thesizes its varied activities, dominates its forces, and is a princi- 



ple of individuation. There would seem to be here present, a 

 vital force or principle which has no organ except that of the en- 

 tire body within which it resides," etc. Now considering that a 

 large number of biologists do not adhere to the old notion of a 

 " vital force," we think the author should have stated both views 

 fairly, giving in his adherence to whichever he may prefer. With 

 the remaining portions of this chapter we agree, and the discus- 

 sion concerning the nature of the cat's mind is a clear and inter- 



Our domestic cat is probably a descendant of the old domestic 

 cat of Egypt, which is mentioned in inscriptions as early as 1684 

 B.C., and was certainly domesticated in Egypt 1300 years before 

 Christ. From Egypt the cat must have been introduced into 

 Greece, while a fresco painting of a domestic cat was found on 

 the wall of a Pompeiian house ; although the late Professor Rol- 

 leston has suggested that the domestic cat of the Greeks was the 

 white-breasted marten. The domestic cat is probably the descen- 

 dant of the Egyptian cat ( Felis maniculata), a native of Northern 

 Africa. 



It is a pity that among the excellent drawings of different spe- 

 cies of cats given us in this book, a good representation of the 

 Egyptian cat should not appear. 



In this chapter the different kinds of cats are described, and 

 many of them illustrated in an excellent way, among them the 



