ANIMALS AND MEMORY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 10 December 1927, Page 12

ANIMALS AND MEMORY

THEIR SERVICE TO MAN. “Nose and memory are closely as sociated in auimal iiie,’’ says a writer in “My Magazine.’’ “A outterUy smalls out the scent ot its own species; moths find their way to one another in the dark oy the same organ; wolf to wolf, fox to fox, horse to horse, elephant to elepfiant, lion to lion—they follow their noses.' They remember the characteristic scent. “The elephant may crush a man to death and break out into tho forest, but it can be recaptured and set to work again with perfect safety. The horse would not work for us if it were able to build up into its experience all ns memories ol successful battle with its groom or its breaker. Cattle would defy us, the camel would trample and bite us to death, donkeys would dash their way to freedom if they could understand and co-orainate what they remember, building up experience aud reasoning from it as a human does. “Animals do not understand, though they may not forget. That is a mercy for us; but on the other hand, if they forgot, in the manner of insects and amphibia then they would bo equally useless, for they could never remember what wo teach them, never realise that they are mastered. It would seem as if their typo of memory were fashioned for the special advantage of the one creature capable of profiting by it —Man himself. ’ ’