12 Canine Intelligence . [January* 
examined, — the motive of the examination clearly being to 
ascertain which general idea of quality is appropriate to the 
particular objedt examined.” With this statement I cannot 
altogether agree. In the first place I do not like the use of 
the expressions “ abstract ideas of quality ” and “ general 
ideas of quality ” as synonymous ; and, in the second place, 
if, as the words “ apart from the objedt examined ” seem to 
imply, Mr. Romanes wishes us to understand abstradt ideas 
in what I regard as the true sense of this phrase, then I 
cannot agree that “ the animal has properly abstradt ideas.” 
I do, most certainly, believe that the dog has the power of 
forming general ideas ; but I do not believe that the dog, or 
any animal, has the power of forming abstradt ideas properly 
so called. 
Let me, however, show the sense in which I understand 
the terms general ideas and abstradt ideas. I believe it to 
be the sense in which they are always used by Mr. Herbert 
Spencer. What we chiefly need now in our discussions of 
matters connedted with this subjedt is greater precision in 
our use of such terms as these. 
A general idea then is, as the word implies, opposed to 
that special idea which arises in the mind on sight of a par- 
ticular objedt. If I look out of window I see a horse, and 
I have a special idea of this particular individual horse. (I 
use the word idea in each case merely to mark the opposi- 
tion.) But you, my reader, who do not see that horse, have 
a general idea of horse called up in your mind by a certain 
printed word. 
Now there can, I think, be little doubt that animals are 
perfedtly well able to form general ideas of objedts. See 
how a dog starts at the sound of a strange footstep. Surely 
we must suppose that the unusual footfall suggests the idea 
of a stranger by whom it is produced. But if of a stranger 
it must be general, not individual. So, too, with qualities. 
A strange piece of meat suggests an idea of taste, as part of 
the total idea of the object ; and since the meat is of unknown 
and untried charadter, the suggested idea of taste must be 
general, and not particular. In this way the dog may be 
supposed to have general “ ideas of sweet, bitter, hot, nau- 
seous, and, in general, good for eating and bad for eating.” 
But they are general ideas, not abstradt. 
What, then, are abstradt ideas ? Abstradt ideas are ideas 
of qualities or relations isolated from their usual accompani- 
ments. The act of abstraction is the act of separating in thought 
qualities or relations which are inseparable in fact. Thus we 
can form an abstradt idea of roundness apart from any 
