44 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



indices of as high or even higher intelHgence than the dog, 

 no other brute shows anything like the same measure of what 

 we may term human quality. So far as the field of the emo- 

 tions is concerned, we are driven to believe that it has been 

 bred into the kind by the ages of intimate associations, sup- 

 ported by the selective process which has led people to pre- 

 serve the individual of the species with which they found 

 themselves the most in sympathy. I repeat the suggestion, 

 and shall repeat it yet again, for the reason that just here — 

 how effectively the reader's imagination will suggest — we find 

 a basis for the hope that, with time and care, man may bring 

 his subjects of the lower realm into a more intimate, affec- 

 tionate, and helpful relation than is dreamed of by those 

 who look upon them as mere brutes. 



The most curious limitation which we find in dogs is as to 

 the measure of expression to which they have attained. No 

 one who has well considered the facts can doubt that our 

 civilized varieties of this species have something like a hun- 

 dred times as much which deserves utterance as their savage 

 forefathers possessed. Yet the capacity for giving note to 

 these thoughts or emotions has not gained anything like the 

 proportion to the needs. It seems, however, that some gain 

 in this direction has been made, and that much may be 

 won hereafter in the way of further advance. Never having 

 known the species whence our dogs came in its wild state, w^e 

 are uncertain as to its modes of expression ; but, observing 

 the varieties of dogs which are kept by savages, it seems 

 probable that the primitive canines used their voice only in 

 howling or yelping ; that is, as a continuous sound akin to 

 the bellowings or other cries of the various wild mammals. 

 It is characteristic of all these primitive forms of utterance 



