Transcriber's Notes: Inconsistencies in hyphenation left in as per original text.Words underlined have a mouseover function.
THE
DAWN OF REASON
MENTAL TRAITS IN THE
LOWER ANIMALS
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; thereforethe author of this book has endeavored to present the evidences of mentalaction, in creatures lower than man, in a clear, simple, and brief form.He has avoided all technicalities, and has used the utmost brevityconsistent with clearness and accuracy. He also believes that metaphysicshas no place in a discussion of psychology, and has carefully refrainedfrom using this once powerful weapon of psychologists.
Many of the data used by the authors of more pretentious works aresecond-hand or hearsay; the author of this treatise, however, has noconfidence in the accuracy of such material, therefore he has not madeuse of any such data. His material has been thoroughly sifted, and thereader may depend upon the absolute truth of the evidence herepresented.
The author does not claim infallibility; some of his conclusions may beerroneous; he believes, however, that future investigation willprove the verity of every proposition that is advanced in this book. Thesepropositions have been formulated only after a twenty-years study ofbiology in all of its phases.
Some of the data used in this volume have appeared in Appleton's PopularScience Monthly, Lippincott's Magazine, Worthington's Magazine, NewYork Medical Record, Recreation, Atlantic Monthly, AmericanNaturalist, Scientific American, Home Magazine, Popular ScienceNews, Denver Medical Times, and North American Review; therefore theauthor tenders his thanks to the publishers of these magazines for theirkindness 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, andpsychology—The presence of nerve-elements inmonera—Conscious and unconscious mind—Unconscious("vegetative") mind in the jelly-fish—Anatomy, physiology, andpsychology of the jelly-fish—The