G2 INTRODUCTION. * 



siderable distances^^ with letters, parcels, &c.— The 

 farce of the Deserter, got up some years ago at AsT- 

 ley's, and performed wholly by dogs, exhibited the 

 most astonishing proof of their teachable and imitative 

 disposition that it is possible to conceive. 



I shall conclude this summary of the moral qualities 

 of the dog, by noticing a property in him, which, if it 

 has not altogether escaped the observation of philoso- 

 phers and naturalists, it has certainly been but very 

 cursorily noticed. It is, however, a subject worthy the 

 most attentive investigation of the metaphysician and 

 zoologist; and when its importance is considered, from 

 the extraordinary nature of the phenomena it displays, 

 it is only surprising that it has not before received a 

 full investigation. This property may be justly called 

 a sixth sense^^, although it has no outward organs con- 



37 1 have been told that the late Mr. Harvey Combe sent a New- 

 foundland dog: from Andover, in Hampshire, to Hyde Park Corner. 

 Mr. Combe had, on passing throuf^h the turnpike, purposely placed 

 his gloves on the chimney mantel-piece, in presence of the dog-. 

 When Mr. C. arrived at Andover, he despatched the dog back for 

 his gloves, with which the sagacious animal returned in a shorter 

 time than was supposed sufficient for the task. 



32 Dr. RoGET, in a lecture delivered at the Koyal Institution, took 

 some notice of what he termed a sixth sense that had been observed 

 by him in bats, and some other animals, but which sense appears 

 totally distinct from the faculty of observing distances. The pro- 

 perty Dr. R. notices is that whereby some animals are enabled to 

 perceive the situation of external objects without seeing or coming 

 in contact with them. Spallanzani had noticed this long before. 



Mr. Jacobson has lately discovered, at the bottom and fore part of 

 the nostrils, in some quadrupeds, certain organs, which communicate 

 with the mouth, arc amply supplied with nerves and blood-vessels, 

 and which s<?em to him to be the seat of some peculiar faculty ; but 



