A Canadian Pioneer of Comparative Psychology: T. Wesley Mills (1847-1915)

Abstract

A brief survey is given of the life and writings of T. Wesley Mills (1847-1915) with particular emphasis on his work on comparative psychology. He represented a position closer to Romanes than to Thorndike insofar as he felt that the intelligence of certain species of animals was often underestimated. He was also a pioneer in the keeping of diaries describing the development of sensory and cognitive abilities in the first days of life in puppies, kittens and the young of other species. He also tried to relate the development of these abilities to developments in the excitability of the cerebral cortex.