The Dawn of Reason: Or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals |
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able action antennæ ants appear became become bees beetles believe beneath birds body called carried cells certain chapter close conscious creature darkness determination developed direction discovered distance eggs emotions entirely evidences evinced examined experiment eyes fact female finally fish follow frequently function give grains ground habit hand head higher highly immediately indicate individuals insects instance instinct Intelligence interesting latter leave light living lower animals Lubbock male marked memory mind minute monkey mother nature nerve nest never noticed observed occasion once organs placed play possess present probably psychical quoted reason recognize remained remember removed returned Romanes seemed seen sense side sight simple snail soon sounds species spider starch surface surroundings taken tion took true turn wasp worms young
Popular passages
Page 107 - The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils ; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus : Let no such man be trusted.
Page 157 - ... do now, partly by hunting, partly on honey ; that by degrees they became bold marauders, and gradually took to keeping slaves ; that for a time they maintained their strength and agility, though losing by degrees their real independence, their arts, and even many of their instincts ; that gradually even their bodily force dwindled away under the enervating influence to which they had subjected themselves, until they sank to their present degraded condition — weak in body and mind, few in numbers,...
Page 156 - Aner gates, finally, we come to the last scene of this sad history. We may safely conclude that in distant times their ancestors lived, as so many ants do now, partly by hunting, partly on honey ; that by degrees they became bold marauders, and gradually took to keeping slaves ; that for a time they maintained their strength and agility, though losing by degrees their real independence, their arts, and even many of their instincts ; that gradually even their bodily force dwindled away under the enervating...
Page 101 - The next that approached, as soon as it discovered its situation, ran backwards in an agitated manner, and soon communicated the intelligence to the others. They rushed to the rescue, some bit at the stone and tried to move it, others seized the prisoner by the legs, and tugged with such force that I thought the legs would be pulled off, but they persevered until they got the captive free. I next covered one up with a piece of clay, leaving only the ends of its antennae projecting. It was soon discovered...
Page 102 - March 4 the ants were all out of the nest, probably for fresh air, and had collected together in a corner of the box ; they had not, however, forgotten her, but had carried her with them. I took off the glass lid of the box, and after a while they returned as usual to the nest, taking her in again. On March 5 she was still alive, but on the 1 5th, notwithstanding all their care, she was dead...
Page 44 - In its higher forms, Instinct is probably accompanied by a rudimentary consciousness. There cannot be co-ordination of many stimuli without some ganglion through which they are all brought into relation. In the process of bringing them into relation, this ganglion must be subject to the influence of each — must undergo many changes. And the quick succession of changes in a ganglion, implying as it does perpetual experiences of differences and likenesses, constitutes the raw material of consciousness....
Page 96 - As soon as dinner was over, I went out with my gun to drive them off, and I fired with small shot at one of them, which instantly ran down to the lowest branch of the tree, as if he were going to fly at me, stopped suddenly, and coolly put its paw to the part wounded, covered with blood, and held it out for me to see...
Page 97 - We see maternal affection exhibited in the most trifling details; thus Rengger observed an American monkey (a Cebus) carefully driving away the flies which plagued her infant; and Duvaucel saw a Hylobates washing the faces of her young ones in a stream. So intense is the grief of female monkeys for the loss of their young, that it invariably caused the death of certain kinds kept under confinement by Brehm in N.
Page 49 - ... and then crept off to a good distance. Presently, however, it returned to the same cell ; and although there were now no more starch-grains protruding, the actinophrys managed again to extract one from the interior through the crevice. All this was repeated several times, showing that the actinophrys instinctively knew that those were nutritious grains, that they were contained in this cell, and that, although each time after incepting a grain it went away to some distance, it knew how to find...
Page 49 - It then struck me that the actinophryans had obtained their starch- grains from this source ; and while looking at the ruptured cell, an actinophrys made its appearance, and creeping round the cell, at last arrived at the crevice, from which it extricated one of the grains of starch mentioned, and then crept off to a good distance. Presently, however, it returned to the same cell ; and although there were now no more starch-grains protruding, the actinophrys managed again to extract one from the...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Dawn of Reason: Or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals |
| Author | James Weir (Jr.) |
| Publisher | Macmillan, 1899 |
| Original from | the University of Wisconsin - Madison |
| Digitized | 4 jaan. 2008 |
| Length | 234 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |