Intellect in Brutes

Abstract

IF Mr. Henslow will read my letter again he will find it distinctly stated that the “several occasions” on which the leakage took place were referred to in connection with the agency of rats only. The plumber informs me that in none of the cases (four or five) was there any sign of injury to the pipe by frost. In the specimen which I have, the rats have made two ineffectual attempts to perforate the lead, and have succeeded in two distinct places. Had a frost crack existed, with consequent escape of water, there would have been no necessity to make two fruitless attacks on the pipe elsewhere. The specimen may be seen by any one interested at the office of The Country, 170, Strand. Metaphysicians will probably think that Mr. Henslow has stumbled into a quagmire in his discussion of “practical” and “abstract” reasoning. Does he believe that brutes and boys in common have nothing but the faculty of “practical” reason? When a boy finds the value of x in a simple equation, is he not dealing with “abstract” ideas?