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
The higher animals, such as the horse, the ox, the dog, the monkey,
etc., show the emotions of anger, hate, fear, love, and grief so plainly
that "he who runs may read." That these animals possess these emotions
is a fact which hardly needs demonstration. They likewise have very
retentive memories, sometimes treasuring up an injury for days, months,
and years, until an opportunity arrives for them to "get even," thus
showing that they are revengeful.
Thus, a dog of my acquaintance had been severely thrashed last winter
by a larger dog. He bided his time, and, this summer, after his
antagonist had been handicapped by having that atrocious invention, a
muzzle, affixed to his head, he fell upon him, "tooth and toe-nail," and
would have killed him had he not been prevented.
Again, some years ago my attention was called to a large mandril by the
keeper of the monkey house in the St. Louis Zoölogical Garden, who
remarked that "That monkey will do me up some day. I had to thrash him
several days ago, and ever since then he has had it in for me."
Not ten minutes after the conversation, while I was in another part of
the building, I heard a yell from the keeper, and, on rushing to see
what had happened, found that the man's thumb had been almost severed
from his hand by the powerful teeth of the mandril. The keeper had been
explaining something to some visitors, standing with his back to the
animal, and with his hand resting on one of the bars of the cage. The
brute saw his opportunity, and, in the twinkling of an eye, seized it
and inflicted a severe injury to the individual whom he regarded as his
enemy.
During another visit to the above-mentioned monkey house, I accidentally
inflicted an injury to a capuchin monkey, "Tom" by name, who was a great
friend of mine and who had been taken from his cage and given to me by
the keeper. After playing with him for a time, I had placed him on the
floor and had resumed my conversation with the keeper. Suddenly, "Tom"
gave a loud squall and jumped into my lap, wringing one of his hands and
moaning piteously.
He held up his hand towards me, calling my attention to it with many a
grimace and cry; he even felt it with his other hand, carefully
separating the fingers and gently stroking them. On examination I
discovered that the tips of two fingers were bruised and abraded; the
little fellow had evidently had them caught in some way beneath the heel
of my shoe. He quietly and patiently submitted while we dressed his
wounded digits, but removed the bandages just as soon as he was returned
to his cage, evidently having more faith in the curative qualities of
his own saliva than in the medicaments of man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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