THE QUARTERLY 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
APRIL, 1876, 
I. CONSCIENCE IN ANIMALS. 
By G. J. Romanes, M,A., F.L.S. 
MONG several other topics which are dealt with in 
an interesting article headed “ Animal Depravity ” 
that appeared in the number of this Journal for 
October last, the writer alludes to the question as to whether 
or not the rudiments of a moral sense are discernible in 
animals. This question I consider to be of so much im- 
portance from a psychological point of view that, although 
a great deal of observation which I have directed towards 
its enlightenment has hitherto yielded but small results, I 
am tempted to publish the latter, such as they are, in the 
hope that, if they serve no better end, they may perhaps 
induce some other observers to bestow their attention upon 
this very interesting subject. 
I may first briefly state what I conceive to be the theo- 
retical standing of the subject. At the present day, when 
the general theory of evolution is accepted by all save the 
ignorant or the prejudiced, the antecedent probability is 
overwhelming that our moral sense, like all our other psy- 
chological faculties, has been evolved. The question as to 
the causes of its evolution has been discussed in the “Descent 
of Man,” and this with all the breadth of thought and force 
of fa< 5 t so characteristic of the writings which have exerted 
an influence upon human thought more profound than has 
been exerted by the writings of any other single man — not 
even excepting Aristotle in Philosophy or Newton in Science. 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, also, has treated of this subject, and, 
if his wonderful “ programme ” is ever destined to attain 
completion, we may expeCt copious results when his great 
powers are brought to bear upon the “ Principles of Morality.” 
Meanwhile, however, we have ample evidence to render it 
highly probable that at any rate the leading causes in the 
development of our moral sense have had their origin in the 
VOL. vi. (n.s.) u 
