ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTINCTS. 187 



I have met with in dogs of the inheritance of a tlioroughly sense- 

 less psychological peculiarity. I refer to the instance which 

 was communicated some years ago to Mr. Darwin by Dr. 

 Huggins, F.R.S., and which I shall quote in his own words. 



" I wish to communicate to you a curious case of an 

 inherited mental peculiarity. I possess an English mastiff, 

 by name Kepler, a son of the celebrated Turk out of Venus. 

 I broucrht the doii:, when six weeks old, from the stable in 

 which he was born. The first time I took him out he started 

 back in alarm at the first butcher's shop he had ever seen. 

 I soon found he had a violent antipathy to butchers and 

 butchers' shops. When six months old a servant took him 

 with her on an errand. At a short distance before coming to 

 the house she had to pass a butcher's shop ; the dog threw 

 himself down (being led with a string), neither coaxing or 

 threats would make him pass the shop. The dog was too 

 heavy to be carried, and as a crowd collected, the servant had 

 to return with the dog more than a mile, and then go without 

 liim. This occurred about two years ago. The antipathy 

 still continues, but the dog will pass nearer to a shop than 

 he formerly would. About two months ago, in a little book 

 on dogs, published by Dean, I discovered that the same 

 strange antipathy is shown by the father, Turk. I then 

 wrote to Mr. JSTicholls, the former owner of Turk, to ask him 

 for any information he might have on the point. He replied, 

 ' I can say that the same antipathy exists in King, the sire 

 of Turk, in Turk, in Punch (son of Turk out of Meg), and in 

 Paris (son of Turk out of Juno). Paris has the greatest 

 antipathy, as he w^onld hardly go into a street where a 

 butcher's shop is, and would run away after passing it. 

 When a cart with a butcher's man came into the place where 

 the dogs were kept, although they could not see him, they 

 all were ready to break their chains. A master-butcher, 

 dressed privately, called one evening on Paris' master to see 

 the dog. He had hardly entered the house before the dog 

 (thougli shut in) was so much excited that he had to be put 

 into a shed, and the butcher was forced to leave without 

 seeing the dog. The same dog at Hastings made a spring at 

 a gentleman who came into the hotel. The owner caught the 

 dog and apologised, and said he never knew him to do so 

 before, except when a butcher came to his house. The 

 gentleman at once said that was his business.' " 



