The psychic development of young animals and its physical (somatic) correlation with specific reference to the brain / by Wesley Mills.
- T. Wesley Mills
- Date:
- 1896
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The psychic development of young animals and its physical (somatic) correlation with specific reference to the brain / by Wesley Mills. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![of H litter of puppie.s, as shown in iny paper on the dog (these Trans- actions, 1894), will impress both the pliysiologist and the })sychologist with the rapidly increasing complexity of the life of a young dog, a com- plexity in which reflex and voluntary movements, instincts, intelligence, emotions and will blend in varying hut ever augmenting degrees of intricacy, with all of which the rapidly developing cortex is correlated, and, as 1 liave endeavoui*ed to show in earlier papers, there is a large amount of somatic correlation over and above that of the brain, which is constant as to period of develojiment, but with variations for indivi- duals and breeds. The rapidity of psychic ilevelopment of a terriei’ as compared with a St. Bernard is very .striking, even within the fii-st six weeks of life, but persists to maturit}* ; and this, I have found, is correlated with a decidedly slower functional develo])incnt of the cerebral cortex in the St. Bernard ; the difference in the motor co-ordinations in the latter and the terrier is so striking within the tiist six or eight weeks of life as to he ludicrous. II.—The Cat. The Dog and the Cat Compared. Xearly all that has been .said of the reflexes of the dog applies, of eoni-se, to the cat. There are, however, as would be ex]>ected, some that are peculiar to the cat. as hissing, which manifests itself at a surprisingly early date in the kitten, long before the eyes open. As jiointed out in my paper on the cat. there is a general and more speedy development in this animal as com))ared with the dog, and this holds even for reflexes, /. e.. they reach perfection more rapidly ; in fact, speaking generally, the cat develops faster than even the smaller varieties of dogs as terriers. By the si.xteenth day the kitten sjteeially observed by me licked its paw. This, under the circumstances, can scarcely be regarded as a ]jure n^fle.x ; certainly dogs do nothing comi)arahle to this at so early a date. It also scratched its head with the hind leg on the .sixteenth day. Whether this be regarded as voluntary or reflex, it indicates that the cat is in advance of the dot?. Nothing could better demonstrate the more rapid pyschic develop- ment of the cat than the earlier date at which it steadily follows a m»->ving object with the eyes or Axes them for some tiine on a stationary one. In fact, the kitten does this at a time when it is still doubtful if the puppy sees objects as such distinctly. On the eighteenth day the kitten climbed up the side of its box and tried to get out. Nothing comparable to this occurs in the puj)])y till a good deal later. It may be said that the history of the cat during the first six weeks of its life contrasts strongly with that of the dog as regards the more i*apid development of reflex movements, the earliei’ appearance](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22471650_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
