DENVER MEDICAL TIMES VOLUME XVIII. JANUARY, 1899. NUMBER 7. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. INTERDEPENDENT IDEATION IN DOGS AND CATS. Creationists, or those who believe in the Mosaic account of the genesis of the world and the inhabitants thereof, especially those who deny individualism to any of the lower animals, hold that all ideation in such creatures is purely instinctive, that they never reason from cause to effect; in fact, that thought in all animals save man is non-correlative and the offspring of im mediate and spontaneous germination. This is an error which, in the main, is attributable to faulty education. For, as soon as one grasps the idea that man is bur the last link in a chain which leads back to the very beginning of life, he begins to perceive that ideation in the lower animals. is the same in kind (though differing in degree) as it is in human beings. Man has so long boasted to himself that he holds a unique niche in the scheme of animal life that he is loth to abandon the idea and to confess that this position is purely an imaginary one. Even Romanes, acute and far-sighted as he was, when he entered on the study of the psychology of the lower animals, had no idea of yielding the possession of abstraction to any animal save man; and yet, before he had finished gathering the data for his great work, "Mental Evolution in Animals," he was compelled to admit that many of the lower animals gave unmis takable evidences of being able to formulate concepts which required abstract thought! Of course, the mental abstraction that was evinced by such creatures was far below that of the most psychically immature of the very lowest of mankind, yet it was present in a certain degree and could not be ignored. I do not intend, however, in this paper, to institute a comparison between the finer shades of psychical acuteness as observed in man and in the lower animals; I simply wish to introduce certain evidence which will show, I believe, that some of the lower animals do reason from cause to effect; that their thoughts, on occasions, are interdependent and correlative. The fable of the crow, the cheese and the fox has always been my favorite, and its "haec fabula docet" is to me the most pointed of all the fables of Aesop. The ruse of the fox, whereby he gains the coveted bit of cheese, seems to me to be the very acme of strategical cunning. Not long ago I saw this fable enacted to a certain extent by two dogs, Dick and Bounce. These animals, English fox-terriers, belong to one of my friends, and are noted for their intelligence and beauty. They are allowed the freedom of the house, and pass most of their time in the library. One particular spot near the fireplace is greatly coveted and formerly caused much strife between the dogs. Repeated whippings by the master finally abolished this, however, and now this desirable lounging-place belongs to the dog which, for the time being, occupies it. One day during early spring, when the weather was quite cold, Dick was the fortunate possessor of this warm and cosy corner by the fireside, much to the disgust of Bounce. The latter wandered about whining and ill at ease. Suddenly he left the room and ran into the hall, where he set up a loud and angry barking. Dick sprang to his feet and rushed out to see what in the world was the matter. Quick as a flash Bounce darted past him, and before Dick knew what had happened the shrewd little schemer was snugly coiled up on the coveted rug! In this instance, interdependent ideation is to be observed beyond question of doubt. The dog, Bounce, was evidently very desirous of occupying the corner by the fireside; he knew that if he attacked Dick and attempted to drive him away his master would give him a beating; he therefore evolved the stratagem which he afterward perpetrated with such perfect success. In the evolution of this ruse, one idea correlated with another until the concept as a whole embraced several ideas, each of them distinct yet interdependent. This strategem was not instinctive, neither was it immediate and spontaneous; it required some ratiocinative ability as well as a noticeable interval of time for its evolution. Furthermore, the owner of these dogs informs me that Bounce has used this ruse twice since the time of the first observation! The road in front of my house passes through a cut some six or seven feet deep. This cut, on my side of the road, is bounded by a brick wall. The head of a traveler walking along the roadway will not reach the top of the wall by several inches. Noting this, one of my dogs has elaborated a dangerous pastime or amusement which will, I greatly fear, eventually lead to his death unless he abandons it. Whenever he sees anyone walking along the road he will crouch down on the lawn immediately behind the coping of the wall, and waiting until the unsuspecting passer-by has arrived just opposite his lurking place, he will suddenly spring up and let out a loud and ferocious bark. The astounded and greatly terrified traveler generally finds himself in the middle of the road before he realizes what has happened to him. In the meantime the dog has made his way toward the house; he knows that he has broken the peace, therefore he puts as great a distance between his victim and himself as he possibly can! Notwithstanding the fact that I have punished him time and again, I cannot make him give up this unseemly, discourteous and utterly uncalled-for breach of the peace. He has the kindest disposition I have ever met with in a dog, and cannot be made to attack anyone, yet he seems to have become completely infatuated with the joke of his feigned assaults on inoffensive passers-by. What induced him to begin this practice I cannot conceive; I fear, however, that someone will fail to appreciate his little joke some day, and will introduce him to the canine heaven via the revolver or the poison route. These assaults are, unmistakably, feigned attacks, consequently cannot be instinctive; such an instinct is not present in the psychical organism of the dog. Of course, the feigned attacks of a dog when at play with one of his kind are wholly and entirely instinctive; the feigned assaults described above, however, are engendered by psychical operations whose inciting and exciting stimuli are, by no manner of means, instinctive. All dogs are more or less playful at times; their fun is, however, always open and easily to be appreciated. In the case of the practical joker now under discussion, however, the fun is an unknown quantity save in the mind of the joker himself. This dog may have accidentally discovered the effect of a sudden growl or bark on some timid or unwary traveler; yet this does not destroy the fact that he was sufficiently acute to store up the experiment in his mind and use it again on future occasions. His method of procedure clearly shows correlative ideation in rather a high degree. The late Lieutenant Conway, U. S. N., once owned a halfbreed Portugese bloodhound, which, on many occasions, gave evidences of high intelligence. This animal was with Conway on the Huron when that vessel was wrecked, and, like his master on that occasion, saved his life by swimming ashore. In fact, |