Frederik Atherton Fernald

“ LEARNING to read the English language is one of the worst mind-stunting processes that has formed a part of the general education of any people. Its evil influence arises from the partly phonetic, partly lawless character of English spelling. Although each letter represents some sound oftener than any other, there is hardly a letter in the alphabet that does not represent more than one sound, and hardly a sound in the language that is not represented in several ways, while many words are written with as many silent letters as significant ones. ”

“ NO phenomena in nature are watched with more interest by all classes, young and old, ignorant and educated, than the displays of intelligence in the inferior animals. From the dog, which occupies a position of intelligent companionship with man, down through the less favored species even to the lowest groups of animal life, we see manifested all degrees of that wonderful attribute which in its highest perfection constitutes the human mind. ”

“ The social life of ants has many parallels to that of the barbarous races of human beings. Thus, the habit of making slaves is said to obtain among at least three species of ant. A community attacks a nest of another species in a body; there is a great fight with much slaughter, and, if victorious, the slave-makers carry off the pupae of the vanquished nest in order to hatch them out as slaves. When the pupae hatch out in the nest of their captors, the young slaves begin their life of work, and seem to regard their masters' home as their own ”

“ Sailing about upon the sunny sea to dip up in muslin nets the creatures at the surface, steaming away far from shore to dredge for other material, and carrying on observations among the tanks and bell-jars of a neat little airy workshop, all have their charms. ”

“ It is through these holes that the feet are thrust out, so that in its main features an echinus is merely a star-fish with its five rays curved into the shape of a hollow spheroid, and then converted into a rigid box, with holes left for its feet to come through. The urchin crawls in the same way as the common star-fish, but makes use of its spines also to help push itself along. The suckers, moreover, in being protruded from all sides of a globe instead of from the under side of a flat organism, are of much more use as feelers than they are in the star-fish. ”

“ The higher mental faculties are more developed in the elephant than in any other animal, except the dog and the monkey. The general fact that elephants are habitually employed in parts of India for storing timber, building, etc., shows a high level of docile intelligence. But perhaps in no labor in which they are employed do they display a more wonderful sagacity than in helping to catch wild elephants. ”

“ A predatory expedition of ants for capturing slaves, or robbing the storehouse of another nest, marches out in a close column numbering from a few hundreds to several thousands. The army is guided to its destination, which may be an hour's march distant, by several ants who run from side to side with heads down, evidently finding their way by scent. ”

“ There is nothing in any word to indicate in which of these ways its component sounds are represented, nothing in the written group of letters to show which sounds they stand for, and which of them, if any, are silent, so that a learner can never be sure of pronouncing rightly an English word that he has not heard spoken, nor of spelling correctly one that he has never seen written. The spelling of each word must be learned by sheer force of memory. ”

“ A common star-fish can crawl only two inches a minute. Some of the Comatulæ, in which the muscularity of the rays has proceeded still further, are able actually to swim by the co-ordinated movements of their rays.
The sea-urchin, or echinus, is a modification of the star-fish structure, having the form of a flattened sphere, and is covered with hard spines (Fig. 6) . In the living animal these spines are movable in all directions, each being mounted on a ball-and-socket joint, and provided with muscles at its base. ”

“ On the other hand, the child who has difficulty in learning to spell may be expected to develop strong logical faculties. He is constantly trying to spell according to some principle, and, of course, constantly coming to grief. Thus a boy who had long been at the foot of his spelling-class was one day given the word ghost, and, making a desperate attempt at the sort of spelling he had oftenest heard succeed, he spelled it g-h-o-g-h-j-s-t. ”

“ We cull from his pages a series of representative instances of animal sagacity which the reader will find both entertaining and instructive.
It is common to quote the oyster as the lowest example of stupidity, or absence of anything mental, and, as it is a headless creature, the accusation might not seem wholly unfounded. Yet the oyster is not such a fool but that it can learn by experience, for Dicquemase asserts that, if it be taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, it opens its shell, loses the water within, and perishes. ”

“ Enough of the enormous amount of time spent in this drudgery can be saved to make possible the introduction of the study of things into the primary schools, and many of the one hundred millions of dollars which we spend each year for public education can be turned to imparting real knowledge instead of the mere tools of knowledge. These ends may be attained by the use of phonetic spelling as an introduction to the customary spelling. ”

“ The decoys will crowd up on either side of a wild one, and protect the nooser until a rope is fastened round the wild elephant's leg, when the tame one, to whose collar the other end of the rope is attached, will drag the captive out, and wind the rope round a tree, while the other decoy prevents any interference from the herd, and pushes the captive toward the tree, thus enabling the first one to take in the slack of the rope. ”

“ They never leave the nest, and so all the out-door work of foraging, slave-capturing, etc., is performed by the masters.
F. rufescens, on the other hand, assigns a much larger share of labor to the slaves. In this species the males and fertile females do no work of any kind, and the workers, or sterile females, though most energetic in capturing slaves, do no other kind of work. Therefore the whole community is absolutely dependent upon its slaves. ”

“ Children can and do learn to read English spelled phonetically in a very few lessons, and learn the traditional spelling so quickly afterward that much less time is required for the whole process than is commonly devoted to memorizing the current spelling alone. ”

“ Yet the animal is able to progress slowly by means of its spines, which are used to prop and push the globe-like shell along in some continuous direction. If a lighted match be held in front of the moving animal, as soon as the echinus comes close enough to feel the heat, all the spines begin to make the creature move away in the opposite direction. There is an urchin-like form of echinoderm called spatangus, which differs from the echinus in having shorter feet and longer spines. ”

“ The three spans are protected against lateral swaying by four stays from each corner of each tower, which run out just under the roadway, and are attached to the truss at the opposite side at different distances. Beyond these are other similar stays running from side to side. Further, the two outer cables are drawn inward, and the two inner ones outward, as they recede from the towers, so that each opposes its weight in the form of an arch to lateral movement. The suspenders also tend to prevent swaying, for, instead of descending vertically, each is drawn in toward its half of the bridge. ”

“ To prevent danger in case the brakes should fail to control a train coming down the incline of the roadway, the car-tracks are kept at the same level for the last 600 feet on each approach, which brings them out at about the level of the elevated roads. The cars are to be propelled by means of an endless wire rope, which will run between the rails of each track, over grooved wheels, set upright 221⁄2 feet apart. ”

“ What it is that these curious organs are adapted to seize, and therefore of what use they are in the economy of the animal, has long been a puzzle to naturalists, but Dr. Romanes and his associate, Professor Ewart, have succeeded in throwing some light on this point. In some species of star-fish the size of the central disk is increased so as to fill up the spaces between the rays, the form of the animal thus becoming a pentagon. In other species the reverse process has taken place, the rays having become relatively longer, and, being at the same ”

“ But an echinus will never let go its attachments without some urgent reason, seeming to be above all things afraid of being rolled about at the mercy of currents, and therefore it lets itself down almost as slowly as it pulled itself up (Fig. 10) .
Single rays separated from a star-fish crawl as fast as the entire animal, and likewise in a determinate direction. They also crawl up ”

“ In climbing perpendicular or inclined surfaces of rock covered with waving sea-weeds, it must be of no small advantage to an echinus to be provided on all sides with a multitude of movable stalks bearing forceps, which can instantly seize a passing frond. ”

“ It is not surprising that these various indications of something like a capacity for thought should be of universal interest, but it also has a deeper meaning, which it is the office of science and philosophy to explore, and which relates to the profound and mysterious problem of "mind in nature." ”

“ If the animal while walking be turned half round, it will continue its movements as before, and hence will proceed in a direction opposite to its former one. When at rest, some of the feet are used as anchors, and others protruded as feelers. ”

“ The effect on the mind is certainly no better. The Chinese have to memorize a compound symbol for each word in learning to read, but the patient endurance of such a burden is not consistent with the character of any other people than the submissive, imitative, unprogressive Chinese. ”

“ One could almost fancy there was a display of dry humor in the manner in which the decoys thus play with the fears of the wild herd, and make light of their efforts at resistance. When reluctant they shove them forward, when violent they drive them back; when the wild ones throw themselves down, the tame ones butt them with head and shoulders and force them up again ”

“ An instance of sagacity—indeed, amounting to reason—in a French poodle is told by Canon ——. Being a guest at luncheon with the dog's master, the canon fed the dog with pieces of beef. After luncheon the beef was taken into the larder. The dog did not think he had his fair share. What did he do? Now, he had been taught to stand on his hind-legs, put his paw on a lady's wrist, and hand her into the dining-room. He adopted the same tactics with the canon, stood on his hind-legs, put his paw on his arm, and made for the door. ”

“ It seems to be a pretty general habit among many species of ants to dispose of the dead bodies of their comrades very carefully. The following especially notable account is given by an Australian observer:
"I saw a large number of ants surrounding the dead ones, and determined to watch their proceedings closely. I followed four or five that started off from the rest toward a hillock a short distance off, in which was an ants' nest. ”

“ In this work the pupil's reasoning powers can not be utilized, but must be subdued, while his memory is sadly overworked. In the affairs of the child's daily life, the logical following out of rules is rewarded; in learning to spell, it brings him only discomfiture and bewilderment. ”

“ They display the most perfect conception of every movement, both of the object to be attained and of the means to accomplish it. On one occasion, in tying up a large elephant, he contrived, before he could be hauled close up to the tree, to walk once or twice round it, carrying the rope with him ”

“ It will be perceived that, as soon as the descent begins, gravity is no longer an obstacle but an aid to the righting movement, and it might be anticipated that the echinus would now simply let go all its attachments and allow itself to roll over into its natural position. ”

“ Huber shut up thirty masters without a slave and with abundance of their favorite food, and also with their own larvæ and pupæ as a stimulus to work; but they could not feed even themselves, and many died of hunger. ”

“ Before philosophy can make much headway with this question, however, there must be a more critical scrutiny of the question as to what degrees of intelligence different grades of animals really possess. ”

“ It often takes a day or two for the meeting to assemble; a palaver is then held, at the close of which the whole body sets upon two or three apparent culprits and kills them. No witness of such a scene can fail to be convinced that the accused have had a fair trial, and have not been put to death without cause. ”

“ In what may be called the chief pursuit of dogs—that of game—they often show great ingenuity in overcoming unusual obstacles. A little Skye terrier was once observed snuffing about on a wheat-stack which was in the course of being thrashed, when suddenly a very large rat bounced off, just from under her nose. ”

“ Two opposite arms are used upon the floor with the motion of swimming, the animal leaping forward about two inches at each stroke, and, as these leaps follow one another quickly, the starfish is able to travel at the rate of six feet a minute. ”

“ All species of the Echinodermata, when turned upon their backs, are able to right themselves. The brittle-stars can easily perform the
Fig. 7.—Natural righting Movements of Common Star-fish.
needful manœuvre by wriggling some of their snake-like arms under the inverted disk, and heaving the whole body over by the mere muscularity of these members. The common star-fish, however, experiences more difficulty, and executes the manœuvre mainly by means of its suckers. ”

“ The following interesting observation on the intelligence of snakes shows, not only that these animals are well able to distinguish persons, but also that they possess an intensity of amiable emotion scarcely to be expected in this class. ”