Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animalsKindermann, Henny
Science
Lola : $b or, The thought and speech of animals
Kindermann, Henny
Animal intelligence; Dogs -- Folklore
But whatever value we may attach to Neumann's experiment, it appears to
me sufficiently clear that the supposition of an absolutely mechanically
passive process in the animal will not hold as a sufficient explanation
of the _whole_ of the facts related by Miss Kindermann, nor will it
hold with regard to what science certainly seems to me to be compelled
to admit in the case of the Elberfeld horses, which (as is known)
"worked" magnificently without contact with anyone, tapping their
replies on a board, completely isolated on the ground, and even when
all alone in their stable with the one door tightly closed and all the
spectators outside. The spectators heard and observed the rapped
answers of the horses (for example, to written questions) through a
little glass window. Neither will it hold with regard to the many
experiments made, some also by myself, by means of requests, pictures,
questions, presented to the horses in such a way as to be unknown to
_everyone_, including the experimenter. Besides, the animals at times
gave spontaneous communications. This Assagioli and I, and many others,
have observed even without the presence of Krall and of members of the
Moekel family. Miss Kindermann also gives some of Lola's replies tapped
on the arm of a friend of the authoress, although the latter held out
as usual her own hand to the dog.
Therefore, there must be some "intelligence" in the animal, as
everything cannot come from outside it in these experiments. Probably
this intelligence is not human in quality, but nevertheless not quite
rudimentary, and is such as we may imagine without too much effort to
exist in domestic animals which by many signs often give us proof that
they understand at least in part what is taking place around and within
us. That such an intelligence could very probably be educated, always
within prehuman limits or in a lesser degree than in human infancy,
does not on the whole seem to me so contradictory to our actual
psychological knowledge: since we may very well suppose that the animal
under examination may make use of its proper faculties, as far as lies
in its power, to profit by the situation for the purpose of
accomplishing that which is required of it, under the stimulus of
allurements or threats. (It may even be rather assumed that the
exercise of its proper faculties, which I regard as "intelligent," may
procure for the animal a certain degree of pleasure.) All this is apart
from the question of the arithmetical phenomena which, as I have
already said, deserve separate consideration.
Upon the facts as now established the knowledge of numbers seems to be
the basis of any educability in animals. And this is perhaps the first
and most important discovery in the "new zoopsychology."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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