228 
NATURE NOTES 
light on psychic problems. Nevertheless, if the dog and the elephant are in some 
respects pre-eminent, and if in bodily structure the anthropoid apes approach 
nearer to man than do any other animals, yet when we consider the habits of ants, 
their social organisation, their large communities and elaborate habitations, their 
roadways, their possession of domestic animals, and even in some cases of slaves, 
it must be admitted that they have a fair claim to rank next to man in the scale 
of intelligence. However this may be. Dr. Forel has selected insects, and 
especially his favourite ants, as the subject of his present memoir. 
Many seem to solve the problem to their own satisfaction by saying that 
animals act by instinct and man by reason. I wish he did ! How much happier 
and better the world would be ! But, in fact, the subject is much more complex. « 
Others believe, or think they believe, that their pets, and especially dogs, are as 
intelligent as man. 
Many, again, seem to entertain two entirely opposite and contradictory 
opinions. I often hear people say that their dog, for instance, can do everything 
but speak. But when I ask whether it can realise that two and two make four, 
which is, after all, a very simple arithmetical calculation, much doubt is generally 
expressed. That the dog is a loyal, true and affectionate friend all will gratefully 
admit, but when we come to consider the psychical nature of the animal the limits 
of our knowledge are almost immediately reached. 
I have elsewhere suggested that this arises, in great measure, from the fact 
that hitherto we have tried to teach animals rather than to learn from them, to 
convey our ideas to them, rather than to devise any language or code of signals 
by means of which they might communicate theirs to us. 
The difficulty of determining the intelligence of dogs is increased because 
they are so quick in seizing any indication given them, even unintentionally. 
This is well illustrated by an account Sir William Huggins gave me of a very 
intelligent dog, appropriately named ‘ Kepler,’ belonging to him. A number of 
cards were placed on the ground, numbered respectively l, 2, 3, and so on up to 
10. A question was then asked— the square root of 9 or 16, or such a sum as 
6 plus 55 minus 3. 
Sir William pointed consecutively to the cards, and the dog always barked 
when he came to the right one. Now, he did not consciously give the dog any 
sign, yet so quick was it in seizing the slightest indication that it was able to 
give the correct answer. 
This observation is most interesting in connection with the so-called 
‘thought-reading.’ No one, I suppose, will imagine that there was, in this case, 
any ‘ thought-reading,’ in the sense in which this word is generally used. 
Evidently ‘Kepler’ seized upon some slight indication unintentionally given 
by Sir William Huggins. The observation, however, shows the great difficulty 
of the subject, while it certainly seems to demonstrate a certain amount of 
psychic power. 
If many are prone to exaggerate the intellectual powers of dogs, and horses, 
and elephants, others go to the opposite extreme. Descartes, we know, looked 
on animals as mere automata. Even recently Bethe, Uexkull, and other writers 
have denied the exi.stence of any psychic powers, at any rate in invertebrate 
animals, which they explain as reflex-machines. 
I confess, indeed, that I cannot understand how anyone who loves animals, 
or ever has devoted any study to them, can doubt that they possess some power 
of reason. Many of their actions are unconscious and instinctive; so are some 
of ours, as we may see by watching a child, but practice enables us to walk or 
run almost automatically. 
Even as regards direction this may hold good. I have been for over forty 
years a director of a company, w'hich changed its offices twenty years ago, and I 
have not since had any occasion to enter our old hou.se. One morning this 
summer, however, I was going to a committee in our present house, but 
thinking of other things I walked past our door and two or three intervening 
houses and into the porch of our old office. In fact, many actions which cannot 
be called automatic are not necessarily conscious. They do not fall under the 
head of either instinct or reason. 
Mr. Gladstone told me that once when he was forming one of his Govern- 
ments he had some difficulty in arranging the places. He and Mrs. Gl.adstone 
