THE DOG 47 



give to the utterances of their kindred varies in a way which 

 indicates that they have great varieties of denotations. Some 

 of the shades of the meaning which a dog's bark has to 

 others of his species probably escape our less fine ears. 



The creation of something like a language among our 

 civilized dogs has naturally been accompanied by the develop- 

 ment of an understanding of human speech. Although we 

 cannot attach much importance to the mass of anecdote on 

 this point, there is enough which is well attested — sufficient, 

 indeed, which has come within the limits of my own observa- 

 tion — to make it clear that dogs, even without deliberate 

 teaching, frequently acquire a tolerably clear understanding 

 of a number of words and even of short phrases. They will 

 catch these not only when given in distinct command, but 

 when uttered in an ordinary tone, without any sign that they 

 relate to their affairs. It is true that these understood 

 words generally relate to some action which the dog is 

 accustomed to perform, yet there are instances so well 

 attested that they deserve credit, which seem to show that 

 the creatures can get some sense of the drift of conversation 

 even when it is carried on by persons with whom they are 

 not familiar and does not clearly relate to their own affairs. 



It should be observed that within the narrow limits of 

 this essay little or no effort has been made to interpret the 

 state of mind of dogs from the vast but rather untrustworthy 

 mass of anecdote with which our books are filled. So large 

 a part of this evidence is contaminated by prepossessions, and 

 a yet larger part is so unverified in any scientific sense, that 

 for purposes of sound inquiry it is worthless. It therefore 

 seems best to limit ourselves, as has been done in this paper, 

 to those o-eneral actions of the creatures which are matters 



