We have seen in previous chapters that the lower animals possess one or all of the five senses,—sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch,—that they evince conscious determination; that they possess memory and clearly indicate that the emotions, in the majority of them at least, are highly developed; that they likewise give evidence of æstheticism both inherited and acquired; and, finally, that they show, unmistakably, that they have acquired, to a certain extent, that most refined of all acquired feeling—parental affection. Now, taking these facts into consideration, it would be reasonable to suppose that creatures so highly endowed psychically would present evidences of ratiocination.
That many of the lower animals do present such evidences is a fact beyond dispute, as I will endeavor to show in the following chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] Vide Chap. IV., The Emotions, p. 105.
[73] Baker, Philosophical Trans.; quoted also by Romanes, loc. cit. ante, p. 245.
[74] Baker, Philosophical Trans.; quoted also by Romanes, p. 246; and Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, 2d ed., Vol. II. p. 436.
[75] Mr. Hamilton Alexander, Owensboro, Kentucky.
[76] Reclus, Primitive Folk, p. 131.