734 
Canine Intelligence. 
[December, 
side as one in which Science cannot help us ? Surely not. 
Surely we must make the best of the position in which we 
are inevitably placed. The theory of Evolution and Modern 
Constructive Psychology have lent to this subject an interest 
which it hitherto has lacked. They have shown that between 
Brute Intelligence and Human Intelligence there is organic 
connection. They have made Comparative Psychology, like 
Comparative Anatomy, a recognised branch of Science. 
Our interpretations may be — nay, must be — anthropomor- 
phic ; but to-day we are more than ever forced to attempt 
interpretations of some sort. 
Let us now, by way of preface, ascend as rapidly as pos- 
sible from the very lowest psychological strata. 
All those simpler reflex processes which are connected 
with the continuance of life go on in the dog in much the 
same way as in man, and are probably as little conscious in 
the one case as in the other. These are, in faCt, in ordinary 
language, rather vital processes than mental processes. 
They are, however, undoubtedly neural processes. And 
there are, I think, good grounds for regarding as mental all 
those processes which are effected by the nervous arc (afferent 
nerve, ganglion, efferent nerve). Indeed we must either do so 
or regard Mind as a shifting and disconnected phantasma- 
goria. A great number of reflexes, then, which are effected 
by the spinal cord, and the nerves connected with this chain 
of centres, go on in very much the same way in dog and 
man. So, too, do the still more important reflexes effected 
by the medulla oblongata. Throughout human and canine 
life alike this restless little knot of nerve centres is in cease- 
less activity. The heart-pulses and the complex mechanism 
for effecting a variable supply of blood to the bodily organs, 
the regular sequence of breathing, the insensible perspiration 
of the skin, the play of the facial muscles, the co-ordinated 
movements of lips, tongue, palate, and throat which consti- 
tute the aCt of swallowing, — all these in dog and man are 
under the guidance of the medulla oblongata. 
From these we may pass almost insensibly to those more 
complex reflex actions which are called instincts. It is, in 
faCt, impossible to draw any hard and fast line between 
instinCts and reflexes. The only assignable difference is in 
the complexity of the action. Hence Herbert Spencer’s 
definition of instinCt as compound reflex aCtion. Take for 
example the so-called instinCt of taking the breast. Both 
babe and pup, in common with all the higher Mammalia, 
come into the world with the suckling instinCt in a condition 
