The Dawn of Reason

The Dawn of Reason, by James
Weir

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Title: The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals
Author: James Weir
Release Date: May 25, 2007 [EBook #21608]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE DAWN OF REASON
OR
MENTAL TRAITS IN THE LOWER ANIMALS
BY JAMES WEIR, JR., M.D.
New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON:
MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1899
All rights reserved
* * * * *
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass.
U.S.A.
* * * * *
To My Father
WHO, WHILE NOT A SCIENTIST, HAS YET TAKEN
AN INTELLIGENT AND APPRECIATIVE
INTEREST IN MY WORK
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
* * * * *

PREFACE
Most works on mind in the lower animals are large and ponderous
volumes, replete with technicalities, and unfit for the general reader;

therefore the author of this book has endeavored to present the
evidences of mental action, in creatures lower than man, in a clear,
simple, and brief form. He has avoided all technicalities, and has used
the utmost brevity consistent with clearness and accuracy. He also
believes that metaphysics has no place in a discussion of psychology,
and has carefully refrained from using this once powerful weapon of
psychologists.
Many of the data used by the authors of more pretentious works are
second-hand or hearsay; the author of this treatise, however, has no
confidence in the accuracy of such material, therefore he has not made
use of any such data. His material has been thoroughly sifted, and the
reader may depend upon the absolute truth of the evidence here
presented.
The author does not claim infallibility; some of his conclusions may be
erroneous; he believes, however, that future investigation will prove the
verity of every proposition that is advanced in this book. These
propositions have been formulated only after a twenty-years study of
biology in all of its phases.
Some of the data used in this volume have appeared in Appleton's
Popular Science Monthly, Lippincott's Magazine, Worthington's
Magazine, New York Medical Record, Recreation, Atlantic Monthly,
American Naturalist, Scientific American, Home Magazine, Popular
Science News, Denver Medical Times, and North American Review;
therefore the author tenders his thanks to the publishers of these
magazines for their kindness in allowing him to use their property in
getting out this work.
"WAVELAND," OWENSBORO, KY., January 9, 1899.
* * * * *

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION

CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MIND
PAGE Definition of mind--The correlation of physiology, morphology,
and psychology--The presence of nerve-elements in
monera--Conscious and unconscious mind--Unconscious ("vegetative")
mind in the jelly-fish--Anatomy, physiology, and psychology of the
jelly-fish --The origin of conscious mind. 1
CHAPTER I
THE SENSES IN THE LOWER ANIMALS
The sense of touch--The senses of taste and smell--Actinophryans
having taste--The sense of sight--Modification of sight organs by
surroundings --Sight in Actinophryans--Blind fish sensitive to
light--Blind spiders --Blind man--Primitive eyes in Cymothoe--In the
jelly-fish, sea-urchin, Alciope, Myrianida--The sight organs of the
snail--Power of vision in the snail--Eyes of crayfish--Compound
eyes--Vision in "whirligig beetle"--In Periophthalmus--In
Onchidium--In Calotis--Organs of audition--In
Lepidoptera--Hymenoptera--Orthoptera--Diptera
--Hemiptera--Dyticus marginalis--Corydalus--Ears of grasshopper and
cricket--Of the "red-legged locust"--Of flies--Of gnats--Auditory
vesicles of horse-fly--Ears of butterflies--Cerambyx
beetle--Long-horned beetle--Cicindelidæ--Carabidæ. 7
CHAPTER II
CONSCIOUS DETERMINATION
Definition--How conscious determination is evolved from the
senses--The presence of nerve-tissue in Stentor polymorphus--The
properties of nerve-tissue--Romanes' experiment with anemone--Action
of stimuli on nerve-tissue--Reflection--Origin of consciousness--Time
element in consciousness--Conscious determination in Stentor
polymorphus--In Actinophrys--In Amoeba--In Medusa--In a
water-louse--In a garden snail--In the angle-worm--In oysters--In a

ground wasp. 39
CHAPTER III
MEMORY
Discussed under four heads, viz. Memory of Locality (Surroundings),
Memory of Friends (Kin), Memory of Strangers (Other animals not kin),
and Memory of Events (Education, Happenings, etc.)--Memory of
locality in Actinophrys--In the snail--In the ant--In sand wasps--In
beetles--In reptiles--Memory of Friends--In ants --Experiments with
ants, Lasius flavus, Lasius niger, and Myrmica ruginodis--Memory of
kin in wasps and bees--Experiments --Memory of Strangers (Animals
other than kin)--Recognition of enemies--By bumblebees--Memory of
individuals not enemies--By the toad--By the spider--By ants--By
snakes--By chameleons--By birds --By cattle--By dogs--By
monkeys--Memory of Events (Education, etc.) --In the wasp--In
fleas--In the toad--In other insects. 60
CHAPTER IV
THE EMOTIONS
The higher animals--Laughter--In monkeys--In the dog--In the
chimpanzee --In the orang-utan--Fear, dismay, consternation, grief,
fortitude,