358 INTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS. 



this end. In a paper entitled " Canine Guests," 

 Philip Gilbert Hamerton gives an account of 

 the trained dogs of M. du Rouil which, but for 

 the unimpeachable veracity of the writer, would 

 be almost incredible. M. du Rouil began to 

 educate his first dog out of curiosity to see the 

 effect of the sort of education which seemed to 

 him best adapted for establishing a close under- 

 standing between the human and canine minds ; 

 the results astonished himself and were so grat- 

 ifying that he subsequently educated two others 

 on the same principles. Two of these dogs, 

 " Blanche " and " Lyda," with their master, were 

 guests of Mr. Hamerton, and the intelligence 

 they exhibited, and which he'describes, is, by his 

 own admission, " incredible," yet may be so only 

 because of our ignorance of the nature and 

 extent of the mental powers belonging to the 

 animal creation. Among the many feats per- 

 formed by them were the spelling of words by 

 lettered cards ; the correction of words pur- 

 posely misspelled; the working out of simple 

 problems in arithmetic and the playing of cards 



