No. 1. 



Reasoning Faculty in Brutes. — Dunged Wheat. 



13 



middle of the table ; I placed a correspond- 

 ing - piece on one side; the dog immediately 

 placed another correctly, and so on until all 

 the pieces were engaged. Other six domi- 

 noes were given to each, and I intentionally 

 placed a wrong number. The. dog looked 

 surprised, stared very earnestly at me, and 

 at length growled, and finally barked an- 

 grily. Finding that no notice was taken of 

 his remonstrances, he pushed away the wrong 

 domino with his nose, and took up a suitable 

 one from his own pieces and placed it in its 

 stead. I then played correctly ; the dog fol- 

 lowed, and won the game. His play must 

 have been the result of his own observation 

 and judgment, as not the slightest intimation 

 was, or could have been given by Mr. Leon- 

 ard to his dog.' Mr. Leonard is a gentleman 

 of fortune, and the instruction of his dogs 

 has been taken up merely for his own amuse- 

 ment and diversion. He has found that by 

 inducing the animal to repeat again and 

 again what was required, not only would the 

 dog become capable of performing that spe- 

 cific act, but that part of the brain which 

 was brought into activity by the mental ef- 

 fort, would become more largely developed, 

 and hence a permanent increase of mental 

 power be obtained. The fact is in accord- 

 ance with the known laws of the physiology 

 of the nervous system. 



"Such instances of intelligence might be 

 multiplied to any extent, but it is unneces- 

 sary. Every person who has observed the 

 actions of horses, dogs, foxes, and indeed all 

 other animals, must have noticed numerous 

 cases involving the exercise of memory, de- 

 sign, and a perception of the relation be- 

 tween cause and effect; and thus proving that 

 reason, or the power of combination and in- 

 ferring, is possessed by brutes. The power, 

 it is true, is less perfect than in man, a cir- 

 cumstance we should naturally infer from 

 the greater proportionate volume of brain, 

 and its more perfect arrangement in the lat- 

 ter than in the former; still it may reason- 

 ably be inferred, that the difference is only 

 in degree, and not in kind. 



" We come to the conclusion then, that 

 the question with which this paper com- 

 mences should be answered in the affirma- 

 tive, that brutes do reason. A general belief 

 of this fact would, it is believed, materially 

 change the treatment which they, under the 

 mistaken idea that they were destitute of 

 intellect, have been accustomed to receive 

 from man. Placed by the Creator at the 

 head of ' earth's countless myriads,' man's 

 station is sufficiently elevated and responsi- 

 ble without assuming distinctions, or impu- 

 ting inferiorities, which do not exist. 



"It may not be amiss to remark here, that 



the question under discussion, has no con- 

 nection with the duration of mind, or the 

 frlorious destinies of man hereafter." 



Dunged Wheat. 



I have made the following observations 

 with relation to the ears of wheat. In one 

 field there were, for acres together, gene- 

 rally ten chests on a side in an ear ; about 

 four of the middle chests on each side con- 

 taining five grains, viz : two on each side 

 the middle grain, the upper and lower chests 

 falling off gradually to four, three and two 

 grains in each. I went into another field, 

 and could not find more than eight or nine 

 chests in any ear, nor in any of the middle 

 chests more than three grains, viz: one on 

 each side the middle grain, the upper and 

 lower chests falling away to two, and even 

 to one grain each; but this land had been 

 well dunged. In another field, it was ma- 

 nifest that the part which had been dunged, 

 did not carry so long and full an ear as the 

 land that had been trodden by the fold and 

 sown after one ploughing; many of these 

 last having ten chests, and five grains in 

 each side of the middle ones. On this occa- 

 sion I observed the partitions of the chests 

 to open, in order to let out the blossoms; 

 which, when shot forth, they closed again, 

 and the blossom hung on the outside by a 

 single filament as fine as a cobweb. Until 

 I made this discovery, I could not conceive 

 how so fine a thread could thrust out the 

 blossom. I pulled up many of these roots of 

 wheat, and found that some of them had ten 

 tillers or off-sets each. Now if some roots 

 of wheat have ten tillers each, and others 

 but two or three — if some ears of wheat 

 have ten chests of a side, and others but six 

 or seven — if some ears have five grains in 

 a chest and others but two or three, I leave 

 it to be considered what encouragement there 

 is to sow but little land, and see that this is 

 good and in order. The ten-chested ears, 

 at four middle chests each side, with five 

 grains each, make forty grains ; and twelve 

 other chests at three grains, make thirty-six 

 — say, seventy-six grains to the ear; while 

 the weak wheat has but twenty-six grains 

 in an ear, and six tillers less; these tillers 

 also, holding but in proportion to the top 

 ears. 



Lisle. 



Happiness is not in a cottage, nor in a 

 palace, nor in riches, nor in poverty, nor in 

 wisdom, nor in ignorance ; nor in active, nor 

 in passive life ; — there may be evil, as well 

 as good, in all these. He who possesses 

 Happiness, must feel it, in the mind. 



