The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower AnimalsWeir, James, Jr.
Science
The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals
Weir, James, Jr.
Psychology, Comparative; Reason
Jelly-fish seek the light, and they can be made to follow a bright light
from one side of the aquarium to the other by manipulating the light in
the proper manner. Even where a slight current is set up in the water,
they will swim against it in their efforts to reach the light.
When two or more of the marginal bodies are excised, no effect seems to
follow such excision, but as soon as the last of these bodies is cut
out, the creature falls to the bottom of the tank without motion.
When a point in the nectocalyx is irritated with a point of a needle or
by a vegetable or mineral irritant, the tip of the manubrium will turn
toward, and endeavor to touch, the spot irritated. It does not turn at
once, as it would were its movements the result of reflex action; it
moves deliberately as though actuated by volition.
The above experiments and observation seem to indicate the presence of
conscious determination in the medusa; in fact, there seems to be a
distinct element of choice in these psychical manifestations.
While engaged in watching a water-louse, I saw it swim to a hydra, tear
off one of its buds, and then swim some distance away to a small bit of
mud, behind which it hid until it devoured its tender morsel. Again it
swam back to the hydra and plucked from it one of its young; again it
swam back to the little mud heap, behind which it once more ensconced
itself until it was through with its meal. When we remember that this
little creature was among entirely new surroundings (for I dipped it
from a pond in a tablespoon full of water which I had poured into a
saucer), we will appreciate the fact that the water-louse evinced
conscious determination and no little memory. It probably discovered the
hydra accidentally; it then, as soon as it had secured its prey, swam
away, seeking some spot where it could eat its food without molestation.
But when it sought the hydra again and swam back to its sheltering mud
heap, it showed that it remembered the route to and from its source of
food supply and its temporary hiding-place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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