HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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one proposition from another, then brute animals do 

 possess reason ? Thus, a horse has impressed upon 

 his mind (whatever his mind may be) the proposition 

 that " Inside this stable door I have found rest, and 

 warmth, and food." And he infers from that, that by 

 stopping at that door he will again find rest, and 

 warmth, and food. But does not all observation lead 

 us to conclude that here the inferential powers of 

 brute animals stop, and that they are unable to follow 

 out a train of reasoning, and, from one proposition 

 known to them only by inference from another 

 proposition, and not by direct sense, to infer a second 

 and from that a third, and so on ? And is not that 

 the essential distinction between the inferential facul- 

 ties, call them what you please, of brute animals and 

 men ? In other words, is it not the case that the 

 highest efforts of brute animals in the way of inference 

 reach only to association of ideas ; whereas, in man, 

 association of ideas, which is the foundation of induc- 

 tion, is the ground and starting-point of all the know- 

 ledge which he acquires by those long-continued 

 trains of deductive inference which we call " reason- 

 ing?"— C.B. 



Intelligence in Man and Animals. — Your cor- 

 respondent, Mr. Barclay, writes in the June number : 

 "They (animals) have also an innate dread of their 

 enemies." Without intending to take a part in the 

 discussion, I wish to relate one experiment that I 

 made some time ago expressly to ascertain if the 

 statement quoted was the fact or not. I had a young 

 canary bird and bright young kitten. I brought the 

 kitten into the room where the bird was on the floor, 

 and placed the kitten also on the floor a few yards 

 distant. They discovered each other at once, and the 

 first symptom of each seemed to be curiosity and 

 desire for more intimate acquaintance. Each com- 

 menced approaching the other. The bird advanced 

 farthest fearlessly — no instinct of an enemy there ; but 

 as the bird moved, the instinct of the cat that there 

 was prey was aroused, and the usual manifestation 

 and passion of the cat tribe was shown. That 

 alarmed the bird, and it at once retreated. This ex- 

 periment proved that there was no innate dread of an 

 enemy on the part of the bird ; and on the part of 

 the cat no anticipation of a good meal at first sight. 

 The conclusions that each appeared to arrive at were 

 "after thoughts," whether they are to be called 

 instinct or reason. The two explanations of why rats 

 gnaw leaden water pipes (page 140) are both im- 

 probable. It is a common trouble in this place, and 

 the remedy is to substitute brass or iron pipes for 

 lead. The true explanation most likely is, that when 

 the temperature of the water in the pipe is below the 

 dew point, water is condensed on the exterior of the 

 pipe. Rats and mice need water, finding it there 

 they try to get it, and their mouths and teeth not 

 being adapted to lapping, the teeth cut into the soft 

 material of the lead. That is all. They do not 

 gnaw iron pipes, for the material is too hard. — 

 Charles Stodder, Boston, U. S. 



Intelligence in Animals. — I have a large smooth- 

 coated dog, of no particular breed that I am aware of, 

 which (I had almost written who), has a decided per- 

 ception of Sunday from the other days of the week. 

 To him the only difference is that on Sundays I am in 

 the habit of taking him for a run after morning church. 

 On each morning as I leave home for my business my 

 dog sees me out, and when the door is shut he goes 

 quietly and takes his customary morning nap ; but on 

 Sunday nothing of the sort takes place ; he certainly 

 sees me out, but not with the like composure ; his 

 features are anxious and expectant, and though quiet 

 there is an evident latent excitement. No sooner is the 



street door shut than he bounds upstairs to my bed- 

 room and gets his fore feet and head out of the 

 window and watches me out of sight, and no induce- 

 ment can entice him from his vigils until my return. 

 In the place of his morning sleep there is constant 

 watching. Should his patience become exhausted he 

 will make a rush to the street door, but this is 

 apparently only as a diversion, for he is back again at 

 once to the window, watching and waiting, at times 

 giving way to distressed moans. And when he sights 

 me on my return his frantic joy goes to the extreme 

 of ecstasy. The mystery to me is how he can dis- 

 tinguish one day from the others. My movements at 

 home on Sunday morning are similar to other days : 

 I do not even make any perceptible change in my 

 dress ; I go down to breakfast in the same manner, 

 and occupy about the same time at it ; I return to 

 my bed-room afterwards as on other days, and yet 

 this dog knows one day from the others as well as I 

 do. The only difference that I am aware of is that 

 on Sunday I do not rise so early, but as the whole of 

 my household observe a similar indulgence the same 

 order of events is preserved. As there is cooking 

 going on in the kitchen, the dog has been given to 

 understand that he is not wanted there at such times, 

 and on two or three occasions after our Sunday's 

 ramble, he has been kept waiting on the door steps 

 while the kitchen door was shut; he now waits 

 without any reminder, whatever the weather may be, 

 and he makes no attempt to enter the house until he 

 is bid, and neither will he attempt, as a rule, to go 

 into the kitchen until the cooking is over. But I am 

 bound to say that I do not claim for him a higher 

 degree of rectitude than belongs to the ordinary run 

 of the "superior animal," and I am not certain that 

 the savoury smell from the lower apartments would not 

 be a strong inducement to disobey orders if a little 

 watch were not kept over him. However, there is in 

 him the certain knowledge of good and evil, for when 

 he is detected in an attempt to infringe the rule, 

 which, 'to give him his due, is very seldom, he exhibits 

 certain evidences of a guilty conscience and profound 

 penitence, unless the subdued look and dropped ears 

 are but the veriest hypocrisy ; but we soon forgive 

 him, being well aware of his infirmity for tasty 

 morsels. I may observe that when I take my friend 

 for a run on other days than Sundays, which is of 

 rare occurrence, he adheres to the rule of waiting at 

 the door until told to enter the house, but this is 

 observed only in the early part of the day, as on the 

 evening of all days he does not wait for any bidding. 

 — J. R. Hayes, Barnsbury. 



Intelligence in Sea-gulls. — Perhaps some of 

 your readers may be interested in the following 

 incident. For the last four years we have kept a pair 

 of herring gulls, which we have allowed to roam 

 about the garden fields. The other day, as some 

 little chickens were going to be led out into the field, 

 it was necessary to shut the gulls up, of which they 

 are very fond ; so they were put into the fowls' yard ; 

 upon which one of them (the male) began to chase the 

 fowls, and at length succeeded in securing them in 

 a corner of the yard, then all of a sudden he made a 

 dart right into the midst of them ; scattering them 

 right and left, after which he chased the cock round the 

 yard, and then repeated his chase amongst the fowls ; 

 but still he was not satisfied till he had driven every 

 one of them into the hen-house (at 3.30 P. M.), where 

 they stayed for the rest of the afternoon. Probably 

 the sea-gulls did not approve of being shut out from 

 the garden, so they thought they would make the 

 best of it by having the yard all to themselves. — 

 Horace Livens, IV. Croydon. 



