148 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 
perfect at first ; that, like the lapping of milk, swallow- 
ing, etc., but much jess so, it is improved by practice, 
and that it is subject to modification with the increas- 
ing experience of the animal. It is true the mechanism 
of sucking, both muscular and nervous, in consequence 
of countless ancestral experiences, is like perfectly 
made machinery in good order, it will work on the 
slightest stimulus, but later this machinery is better 
oiled; it works better. That there is but imperfect 
discrimination as to what is sucked is well shown by 
my diary, and that the act only continues a certain 
time, when milk is not obtained, proves that the 
instinct is fairly perfect. However, as the notes show, 
the older the puppy the more perfectly does it utilise 
the sucking mechanism, the less energy does it waste, 
eg. the feet are used to much greater advantage in 
pressing the mammary glands after a couple of weeks 
than in the first days. 
Does the puppy find the teats shortly after its birth 
by smell? I am convinced that it plays no great part 
in the matter for some days, as far as dogs are con- 
cerned. After birth they crawl towards the mother’s 
abdomen to get warmth; they tend to suck almost any 
fleshy object that comes in their way that is not cold; 
they meet the teats, which are the objects best adapted 
to seize and suck ; getting satisfaction, this is continued. 
No doubt, later, smell, the tactile sense, still later vision, 
and a whole host of stored experiences guide in this, 
as in other cases, in which instinct is essential and 
most prominent in the result. But that smell is 
essential that a puppy may reach its dam’s teats soon 
after birth I cannot believe, from the many observations 
I have made. 
Pain.—That a puppy, in the first hour of its exist- 
ence, feels discomfort caunot be doubted, but I regret 
vhat I did not make some definite experiments on the 
