On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    1114 ft!) * %t^tt* [SATUHfcAY ,. i. ^ ^ ...

  • 

    TIIK BUAUTIBS <>* a * UU °**' „ /V' The....

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Thk Passions Ok Animals. The Passions Of...

    of noting the differences of . degree , and thus founding a science of Comparative Psychology , as we at last have founded a science of Comparative Physiology , we have shirked the inquiry , and even indignantly rejected every attempt to appreciate the mental characteristics of animals . For all the phenomena manifested by Man we have a dignified explanation summed up in the word Soul ; lor similar phenomena manifested by Animals we have and

    another phrase , equally comprehensive equally vague , Instinct : and having thus named them we believed we had explained them , —having marked a difference in the terms we concluded there was- an equivalent difference in the facts . How unscientific this procedure is need not be pointed out . Its main source lies in that erroneous method of beginning Euclid with the twelfth book , t . e ., of always beginning with Man , the most complex and difficult of studies , instead of proceeding upwards from the simpler forms of animal life and intelligence .

    Last week we pointed out the ascending complexity of Life , beginning with the Plant , — -passing through the Plant-Animal ( Zoophyte ) to the simpler forms of Animals and upwards to Man—in each stage of the ascent the Vegetative or Organic Life ( which forms the basis and starting point of the whole series ) gradually losing its predominance , which is gradually gained by the Animal or Relative Life . But in no case does the Vegetative Life disappear ; it forms the basis of Man no less than of the Zoophyte . Now , it is quite clear to us that a parallel series of ascending complexity in the manifestations of Mind should be drawn out

    by Pyschologists . Till that is done the philosophy of Mind must fall a victim to the haughty incapacity of Metaphysicians , and their pretensions to * analysis . " They , indeed , will regard such investigation with something of the superb pity felt by John Hunter ' s friends when they heard of his " wasting his time ' * in the dissection of snails and worms , little suspecting the flood of light which would be let in through that crevice upon the whole study of Man .

    What we have described as the Ascensional Method , that is to say , the following of Nature in her varied ascents , from the simple to the complex , from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous , from the general to the specific , is , we believe , a philosophic process which needs application to all departments of science , and a process which scientific men are gradually learniug to appreciate . As an example we would refer to Professor Agassiz ' s luminous

    suggestion of a new principle of Classification in Zoology . On comparing the characters of fossil fishes especially with a view of ascertaining their natural relations to the living types , he was struck with the fact that those of earlier ages presented many structural peculiarities which occur only in the embryonic conditions of the fishes of our days . This led him to infer that embryonic data might be advantageously applied to the correct appreciation of the natural relation of the various members

    of one and the same family , and , perhaps , alao to the determination of the relative position of closely allied typea . We refer our readers to Jameson's Philosophical Journal ( vol . 5 () , p . 227 , sq . ) for the striking illustrations there given of einhryological changes as a foundation of natural clarification ( and ut the same time furnishing irresistible evidence of the doctrine of progressive development ) , our present purpose with the essay being simply to point out its bearing upon the general principle of following nature ' s order , and ascending from lower to higher forms , if we would understand the higher .

    It is well Haul in Todd and Bowman ' s admirable Physiological Anatomy of Man ( the completion of which is urgently demanded ) that " a power of perception and a power of volition together constitute our simplest idea of Mind ,- the one excited through certain corporeal orgutiH , the other acting on the body . Throughout the greatest part of the animal creation mental power exintn ranging from thin its lowest d « groe--a wtato of the blindest instinct prompting the animal to Hearch for foodto the docility , ( sagacity , and memory of the brute ;

    and to itw highest Htiite , the reasoning powers of man . " Tlie only way to investigate this amending series is to trace the upward development of the nervous system . The Plant assimilates , grows , reproduces but does not feel , and cannot , move itself . Sensation and locomotion , the first rudiments of animal life , are seen to become more und more perfect aw the organism becomes more complicated , i . e ., as the nervous system becomes more elaborate . The earlier forms of mental manifestation we name Instinct ; the more

    complicated forme , Intelligence ; but astheNervous system is specifically nervous , whatever may be the amount of concentration in its central masses ( ganglia ) , so Mind is specifically Mind whatever may 1 ) 6 the intensity or variety of its manifestations . Man shares with the brute a twofold hfe-vegetatiye and animal ; he also shares with the brute a twofold mental action—instinctive and rational . Inthe ascending series , we see animal life encroaching on the supremacy of vegetative life , and m like

    manner we see Reason gaining predominance over Instinct . The similarities of the nervous systems in animals and man give correpondmg qualities ; the differences of their nervous systems give different qualities ; and the physiologist who calmly compares the two , must admit that there is no essential distinction , there is only distinction of degree . To escape this conclusion , we know but one way , and that is with Descartes to assume boldly that Brutes are Machines ! Passions of Animalshas

    Mr . Thompson in his , collected a quantity of material for which the psychologist will be grateful ; but we must at the outset declare , that the book is nothing but the merest collection of facts and anecdotes , put together without any idea of arrangement , and betraying a most unphilosopbical mind . In the Introduction , he indulges himself with a feeble excursion , into speculative fields ; we warn the reader to diligently skip it . At the commencement he makes a false move by citing Scripture as his authority for the fact , that man was the only being intended to be

    capable of reason and reflection ; a false move , because it is absurd to make Scripture a test of scientific questions , unless we intend to go whole lengths , and denounce Astronomy and Geology as heresies . But Mr . Thompson is not always so intelligible when left to himself . At page 7 we are told , that ** although we can find no indication of intellectual faculties * in brutes , yet we cannot deny that some of them " possess-a surprising degree of intelligence , combined with tnemorif , purpose , and the power of discrimination" If intelligence is not an indication of an intellectual faculty , of what is it an

    indication ? If memory , purpose , and ' discrimination are not intellectual faculties , what are they ? But , in truth , Mr . Thompson himself , when he ceases arguing , and confines himself to the simple statement of facts , repeatedly assures us that animals have intellectual faculties ; not to mention the whole scope of his work , which shows that animals have all the faculties of man ! In giving instances of animals dreaming , he says , they afford ' the strongest grounds for the assertion that animals possess an inward sense , analagous to the faculty of the soul . "

    The Passions of Animals is , nevertheless , a fascinating book . There are few persons so dead to the wondrous mystery of life around them , as not to be eager listeners to all that can be told them of Natural History ; and as to the intelligence of animals , their tricks and contrivances , their instincts and affections , no man finds a more pleased and willing audience than he who can narrate his anecdotes of such things . We listen to Jones when ho relates a story of his dog ' s aagacity , and are far more interested in it than when Jones becomes

    autobiographical , and enlarges upon his own eminent capacity . Mr . Thompson has here given us a goodly store of anecdotes . He has classified them too under separate heads j and generally confines himself to the simple narration , without indulging in comment or rhetoric . For those who wish to investigate the subject scientifically , his book will afford an abundance of materials ,

    easy of access : and if read in conjunction with the luminous and truly scientific essay On Animal Instincts and Intelligence ( recently published in " Chamhers ' s Papers for the People" ) , which will furnish a point of view from whence the facts may he contemplated , we can promise the student a delightful and instructive investigation . Thoae who only need an umusing book , will find it one of the most amusing . The difficulty of extracting puusagos from such a hook is to know where to stop ; we will only give two or three here , reserving for our Notes and Extracts several passages to be given from time to time : —

    ' * Ihero in a notorious instunoe on record of a dog , which blipping its collar ut night , roumod round the adjoining iiuldu und worried tlio sheep , und after- > wurdH washing itn juwu in u Htroum , returned home , readjusted its collnr , and keeping -within ita kennel , threw off uuspioion . Hero wo havo not only impulse , but uIho u multiplication of actions ariuing from inward power and intelligence , unaccompanied by pvri cejitlon , or the operation of any outwurd agency .

    An orangoutang , itt Paris , when left atenT ^ T tried to escape , and as he could not reach tl ' -i ?* his door , he caniod a stool to the pot w 2 Su u kof removed , he took another , and mounting onu *** newed his effort * . Reason only could have dm * re * this act ; and , besides , there must have been « - ^ bination of ideas to have enabled it to aet tl m " to assist Itself in opening the lock , to Smy ^ iSW had seen its keeper do , namely , to unlock theT and to move a stool about as it wanted it » " ' Stories of the sagacity of elephants are endleim here are two which imply complicated processes i thought : — w «• Another elephant that was exhibited in 'I ^ a was made to go through a variety of tricks a » £ among then * that of picking up a sixpence Wthita trunk ; but on one occasion the coin rolled near * wall beyond its reach . As the animal was still ordered to get , it paused for a moment as if for con sideration , and then , stretching forth its trunk to its greatest extent , blew with such force on the moneF that it was driven against the wall , and wag brought within reach by the recoil . An officer in the Bengal army had a very fine and favourite elephant , which was supplied daily in his presence with a certain allowance of food , but being compelled to absent himself on a journey , the keeper of the beast diminished the ration of food , and the animal became daily thinner and weaker . When its master returned , the elephant exhibited the greatest signs of pleasure ; the feeding time came , and the keeper laid before it the former full allowance of food , which it divide into two parts , consuming one immediately , and leaving the other untouched . The officer , knowing the sagacity of his favourite , saw immediately the fraud that had been practised , and made the' man confess his crime . " These are remarkable facts illustrating—TBNACItY ,-O ^ r LIFB . " Among the lower animals this faculty is , the most remarkable in thepolypi ; they maybe pounded in a mortar , split up , turned inside out like a glove , and divided into parts , without injury to life ; fire alone is fatal to them . It is now aljout a hundred years since Trembley made us acquainted with these animals and first discovered their indestructibility . It has subsequently been taken up by other natural historians , who have followed up these experiments , and have even gone so far as to produce monsters by grafting . If they be turned inside out , they attempt to replace themselves , and if unsuccessfully , the outer surface assumes the properties and powers of the inner , and the reverse . If the effort be partially successful only , the part turned back disappears in twenty-four hours in that part of the bod y it embraces , in such a manner that the arms which projected behind are now fixed in the centre of the body ; the original opening also disappears , and in the room of feelers a new mouth is formed to which new feelers attach themselves , and this new mouth feeds immediately . The healed extremity elongates itself into a tail oi which the animal has now two . If two polypi je passed into one another like tubes , and picrcea through with a bristle , the inner one works its way through the other , and cornea forth again wi a lew days ; in some instances , however , they g ™ J * gJJ £ ' ana then a double row of feelers surround the mown . If they be mutilated , the divided parts grew togth agairi / and even pieces of two separat ndividu ^ will unite into one ¦ « , tiw nollive a long time after the loss of some " ^ 'Jf ^ S tion of their bodies . A Carabus g »»« l J"J gjgj seen to run without a head ; and a Cercen " , deyrijj of its head at the moment it was insertingitsei ^ the cell of a bee , ¦ to deposit its « ggs , c 0 " 3 inan attempt , and turned back to it after it waa p laced ¦» opposite direction . Crickets will live to : a ^ f da ? e without heads , and will linger for ^ everaj h ^ when deprived of their entrails ; and wasps w tempt to sting after their bodies are divideo . A " Ascending higher in the animal worn , ^^ that reptiles , and many species of ntm , biaily the most violent Injuries . Eels are p vitality difficult to kill ; and the shark preserve . i » after every cruelty has been h «» P * , ? " * beyond " The tonacioug power of life in the irog by the measure extraordinary ; it is neither am ^ exhaustion of mi air-pump , nor des ") h <»» frozen into a Bolid mass . The l 11 }™^™ which the power of reproducing parts and join ^ , , ( i ithn « been deprived , and even an « £ » ? * , u times feet have beon known to replace tntmseiv ^^ in i he course of one summer bo th Yri . macula" l ) 0 were reproduced . If the Sulamandra m ; din g on deprived of its head , tho trunk ^ "g ^ , f > its foot , and turns on being touched . lo « o ftboU which ihe brain has been ab-trwto * . Jg « » tt < l for months with dosed eye « , ^ Xutain ''' ' have Hurvived for twenty-three day * wituou

    1114 Ft!) * %T^Tt* [Satuhfcay ,. I. ^ ^ ...

    1114 ft !) * % t ^ tt * [ SATUHfcAY , . i . ^ ^ ^ — r«—^» M ¦ i i

    Tiik Buautibs <>* A * Uu °**' „ /V' The....

    TIIK BUAUTIBS <>* a * ° ** ' „ / V ' The . Poem , 1 ' o . thumou . and Collect q / the Me i ^^ iMg . ( Second Nottot . ) 0 Inni ° Having in a former article expresBcd our

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 22, 1851, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22111851/page/14/