Some
observations on the mental powers of spiders
by Marc Abrahams in Improbable Research
Behold, from 1887, a
disquisition on certain powers of certain multi-legged individuals:
“Some observations on the mental powers of spiders,” George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham, Journal of Morphology, vol. 1, no. 2 (1887): 383-419. The Peckhams say, early on:
“So, also, we have found that to learn anything of the mental processes of spiders the way is long and beset with difficulties. To use the words of Ribot: ‘Many of these investigations, we shall see, pertain to very modest questions, and it is probable that the partisans of the old psychology will find the work too great for results so small. But those who give allegiance to the methods of the positive sciences will not complain of this.
They know how much effort the smallest questions require j how the solution of small questions leads on to the solution of great ones, and how barren of results it is to discuss great problems before the small ones have been solved.’”
Here is one detail from
the study, the route used by one spider on one occasion in finding a cocoon:
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