Animals' Power of Reason

1910

French Scientist Advances Arguments to Prove Their Possession of Thinking Mind

Professor Lipinay, who has made long researches into the habits of domestic animals, in a lecture the other day at the new Dogs' and Cats' home near Ruell, said that he was convinced that animals have a certain amount of reasoning power. He declared that a simple kind of reasoning and reflex thought must be admitted to exist among them.

Cats, more than dogs, he said, learn to imitate their masters' voices. A pet canine has different ways of asking for different things; and their cries are easily understood. This fact seems to prove that the animals make an effort to raise themselves to the level of human beings.

It is also well known that dogs, cats and birds having become familiar friends, understand the meaning of certain words without a person's gesture. The intelligence of a bird he compared to that of a child. If a strange canary is placed in a cage containing several others, all will stop their chirping and singing to look at the newcomer; and it has often been observed how one of the birds will pick a feather out of the stranger and bound away. This is merely to tease the intruder, as children are seen to do when strangers come among them.

As for animals in circuses which are so clever, this cleverness Professor Lipinay attributes to habit rather than any particular intelligence.