ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE BY GEORGE J. BOMANES, M.A. LL.D. F.R.S.
ZOOLOGICAL SECRETARY OF THE LIXXEA SOCIETY FIFTH EDITION LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TBENCH, TKUBNEK, CO. LTD, PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING
CROSS ROAD 1892 WHEN I first began to collect materials for this
work it was my intention, to divide the book into two parte. Of
these.. intended the first to be concerned only with the facts of
animal intelligence, while the second was to have treated of these
facts in..their relation to the theory of Descent. Finding,
however, as I proceeded, that the material was too considerable in
amount to admit of being comprised within the limits of a single
volume, I have made arrangements with the publishers of the
International Scientific Series to bring out the second division of
the work as a separate treatise, under the title 4 Mental
Evolution. This treatise I hope to get ready for press within a
year or two. My object in the work as a whole is twofold. First, I
have thought it desirable that there should be something resembling
a textbook of the facts of Comparative Psychology, to which men of
science, and also metaphysicians, may turn whenever they may have
occasion to acquaint themselves with the particular level of
intelligence to which this or that species of animal attains.
Hitherto the endeavour of assigning these levels has been almost
exclusively in the hands of popular writers and as these have, for
the most part, merely strung together, with discrimination more or
less inadequate, innumerable anecdotes of the display of animal
intelligence, their books ire valueless as works of reference. So
much, indeed, is this the case, that Comparative Psychology has
been virtually excluded from thehierarchy of the sciences. If we
except the methodical researches of a few distinguished
naturalists, it would appear that the phenomena of mind in animals,
having constituted so much and so long the theme of unscientific
authors, are now considered wellnigh unworthy of serious treatment
by scientific methods. But it is surely needless to point out that
the phenomena which constitute the subjectmatter of Comparative
Psychology, even if we regard them merely as facts in Nature, have
at least as great a claim to accurate classification as those
phenomena of structure which constitute the subjectmatter of
Comparative Anatomy. Leaving aside, therefore, the reflection that
within the last twenty years the facts of animal intelligence have
suddenly acquired a new and profound importance, from the proved
probability of their genetic continuity wifh those of human
intelligence, it would remain true that their systematic
arrangement is a worthy object of scientific endeavour. This, then,
has been my first object, which, otherwise stated, amounts merely
to passing the animal kingdom in review in order to give a
trustworthy account of the grade of psychological development which
is presented by each group. Such is the scope of the present
treatise.
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