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Kentish Plover with Eggs and Young.
From the Exhibit in theBritish Natural History Museum.
ANIMAL LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE.
BY
C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S.,
PROFESSOR IN AND DEAN OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL;
LECTURER AT THE BRISTOL MEDICAL SCHOOL;
PRESIDENT OF THE BRISTOL NATURALISTS' SOCIETY, ETC.
AUTHOR OF
"ANIMAL BIOLOGY," "THE SPRINGS OF CONDUCT," ETC.
BOSTON, U. S. A.
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
1891.
TO
MY FATHER.
PREFACE.
There are many books in our language which deal withAnimal Intelligence in an anecdotal and conventionallypopular manner. There are a few, notably those by Mr.Romanes and Mr. Mivart, which bring adequate knowledgeand training to bear on a subject of unusual difficulty. Inthe following pages I have endeavoured to contribute something(imperfect, as I know full well, but the result ofseveral years' study and thought) to our deeper knowledgeof those mental processes which we may fairly infer fromthe activities of dumb animals.
The consideration of Animal Intelligence, from thescientific and philosophical standpoint, has been myprimary aim. But so inextricably intertwined is thesubject of Intelligence with the subject of Life, the subjectof organic evolution with the subject of mental evolution,so closely are questions of Heredity and Natural Selectioninterwoven with questions of Habit and Instinct, that I havedevoted the first part of this volume to a considerationof Organic Evolution. The great importance and valueof Professor Weismann's recent contributions to biologicalscience, and their direct bearing on questions of Instinct,rendered such treatment of my subject, not only advisable,but necessary. Moreover, it seemed to me, and to thosewhom I consulted in the matter, that a general work onAnimal Life and Intelligence, if adequately knit into aconnected whole, and based on sound principles of science[vi]and of philosophy, would not be unwelcomed by biologicalstudents, and by that large and increasing class of readerswho, though not professed students, follow with eagerinterest the development of the doctrine of Evolution.
Incidentally, but only incidentally, matters concerningman, as compared with the dumb ani