MENTAL FACULTIES OF ANIMALS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10671, 21 January 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

MENTAL FACULTIES OF ANIMALS.

(By Br Andrew Wilson.)

The growth and development of mental faculties in animals must ever focm a topic of the deepest importance m view of the fact "that man's own intellectual powers are obviously closely linked to those of his lower neighbors. We have practically renounced the idea that man's brain powers stand alone, either by reason of their nature or with regard to their development and origin. If the idea of evolution, as . the way of tlie becoming of things' - is -to? be entertained at all, we must postulate: at the start the gradual enlargement; and perfecting of the mind, as we know it in man, from nerve-states, which in their beginnings can hardly be called anything more than reflex and unconscious actions. It is a far cry from an amoeba —a microscopic speck ot protoplasm, living in water—to man, but the distance between the two is not absolute or unabridged. The act or the amoeba in responding to the touch or a food particle and of engulfing the particle in its living body is as much a reflex act as that of the "infant crying 111 the night," or the calling forth of tears when a speck of dust irritates the eje. In the one case we have tlie glimmerings of that sensitiveness which is a feature of all life —animal and plant alike—and in the other wo have similar sensitiveness displayed; by an elaborate mechanism which itself can be traced in its gradual evolution as we advance upwards in the animate scale. The everfascinating topic of minds evolution lias been recalled by the publication ot an interesting volume on _ this subject bv Mr Joseph M'Cabe. - This book takes us away from the older lines on which the differences between the mind of and the brain-acts of animals were discussed. As the author remarks, scientific men do not doubt to-day that the nature of mind, whatever it may be, has developed at equal pace with the material organism. This is plain sailing. . lo denv the assertion would be tantamount f?T expecting in the man a less developed brain than in, say/ his dog. Not on y so, but a rise in lire marked by bodily adaptations to a higher state, may have had nervous evolution as one of its controlling. aud directing forces. . Mind mav thus expedite the evolution or bodv, just as one may conceive, a rise in the material organism stimulating tlie "Towtli of brain-capacity, that the inner and better things of life may be enjoyed and appreciated, or even that the environment 'may be more, closely and satisfactorily responded to by the living body. Tire clearest fashion of tracing mental development is to regard it as a phase and feature of the working ot a material organ—the brain. The actions of :r fish or frog can only be adcquatclv judged wlien we study the apparatus which acts, and compare .its status ami its working with those ot other organisms higher and lower in the scale. It might be necessary, in a complete research into tlie development or mind, even to dive into the lnstor\ ol plant-sensation. Botanists are remindhip lis that plants may be able to see iu 'a dim, indistinct fashion, and they call attention to sensitive plants and insect-catchers whose nervous mechanism far. exceeds in the delicacy ot its action that of many animals. Mr M'Ctibe turns to lowly forms ot life, because, he maintains, therein we can find lowly forms of mind. Nobody will quarrel with him here, unless the opposition attaches to "mind a something special and peculiar to humanity, and possibly also to man s near neighbours in the animal series. It a fly-catching sundew shows a sensitiveness at its tentacle-tips, to a particle ot steel weighing only the 1-78,000 th part of a gramme (15 grains), it- can hardly be said to linger behind .even liigh_animals in respect of its sensitiveness.; \> e may well argue that without this' primeval property of* living ■ matter, onehave no thought In higher life; without sensitiveness there can-be no "mmd. Questions of surpassing interest intrude themselves in Mr M'Cabe's survey and in all similar speculations. lor example, we'incline-to ask,-where -does pain begin as we pass upwards from monad to man? • Again, at- what stage does consciousness evolve, and where do we meet with its first definite manifestations? Are lower animals pure automata? as Descartes suggested—an idea which includes man liimself in sundry phases of his life, as Huxley ; long ai'o demonstrated? And wliat_ is-in-struct, or where are we to draw the line if demarcation is possible between automatic or crystallised liabit-and conscious actions? ' Possibly, the-way out or many difficulties-is foiind by our freely recognising that in the highest development of mind we are bound to discover ronic of the inore yiirely automatic habits that figure as the whole nervous phenomena of lower grades; useraj; thee instinctive.'-- powers and "habits, even to man, because; they save his/intelleetual centres much toil. Tnteresti;»ir features cf Mr M'Cabe's-book are the many references to experimental »evidence derived from:-.tests, applied to "discover the degree .of represented i:i : various ; of flue-.j; tie lyould have us recognisQ.that .cpnsciousness is closely. associatcdwiththe developniciit and elaboration .of the .brain-cclU-on the surface- of .the cerebruin "Teat;.brain.:. As this important bramcortcx or nervous bark is well developed birds -and mammals, analogy would seem- to . warrant. the. inference that a measure of consciousness is their portion. The hool; teems with interesting matter, biit it is a volume rtlncli demands naturally close attention and reflective criticism on the part of the render. If it pulls down many of the older ideas about mind-development, at least it does not fail to reconstruct a newer philosophy.

Obeilieutenant Filelmer. the lender of the German Antarctic expedition, announces that his expedition will <sail in llii' spring. The vessel secured for the purpose is a converted .sealer ol oo(J tons, and is a sailer with auxiliary engines. The members of the expedition number thirty, and are all Germans. Three hundred and fifty thousand pounds has been contributed for the purposes of the expedition in a few months.-^