2. The case of the monkey and his congeners stands high in the scale: it is a form of _concrete_ numeration which we shall meet again in children, and in the lowest representatives of humanity. 3. All the other cases resemble the alleged “arithmetic” of G. Leroy’s magpie and similar observations. I see here not a numeration, but a perception of plurality, which is something quite different. There are in the brain of the animal a number of co-existing perceptions. It knows if all are present, or if some are lacking; but a consciousness of difference between the entire group, and the diminished defective group, is not identical with the operation of counting. It is a preliminary state, an introduction, nothing more, and the animal does not pass beyond this stage, does not count in the exact sense of the word. We shall see further on that observations with young children furnish proofs in favor of this assertion, or at least show that it is not an unfounded presumption, but the most probable hypothesis. We may now without further delay (while reserving the facts which are to be studied in the sequel to this chapter) attempt to fix the nature of the forms of abstraction, and of reasoning, accessible to the higher animal types. 1. The generic image results from a _spontaneous_ fusion of images, produced by the repetition of similar, or very analogous, events. It consists in an almost passive process of assimilation; it is not intentional, and has for its subject only the crudest similarities. There is an accumulation, a summation of these resemblances; they predominate by force of numbers, for they are in the majority. Thus there is formed a solid nucleus which predominates in consciousness, an abstract appurtenant to all similar objects; the differences fall into oblivion. Huxley’s comparison of the composite photographs (above cited) renders it needless to dwell on this point. Their genesis depends on the one hand on experience; only events that are frequently repeated can be condensed into a generic image: on the other hand on the affective dispositions of the subject (pleasure, pain, etc.), on interest, and on practical utility, which render certain perceptions predominant. They require, accordingly, no great intellectual development for their formation, and there can be no doubt that they exist quite low down in the animal scale. The infant of four or five months very probably possesses a generic image of the human form and of some similar objects. It may be remarked, further, that this lower form of abstraction can occur also in the adult and cultivated man. If, e. g., we are suddenly transported into a country whose flora is totally unknown to us, the repetition of experiences suggests an unconscious condensation of similar plants; we classify them without knowing their names, without needing to do so, and without clearly apprehending their distinguishing characteristics, those