THOUGHT CAPACITY IN ANIMALS 17 



" To this account Dr. Oelhausen has added : ' This 

 statement has several points of interest. There is 

 firstly the complaint about ' beatings/ and secondly 

 the comparison drawn between her own nocturnal 

 quarters and those of Rolf. It may also be noticed 

 that she was very sparing of her words, using, indeed, 

 no more than the merest ' essentials ' ! Then, 

 observe the careful way in which she followed 

 ' Mother's ' advice only getting into her master's 

 bed after he was well asleep ! ' 



" Another incident, the details of which were 

 supplied to him by Use's master, has also been com- 

 municated to us by Dr. Oelhausen : 



" ' The clergyman had taken several of his village 

 school-children for a walk, during the course of which 

 he asked them the names of the various trees. Among 

 these was one of which no child could tell the name. 

 Use, his constant companion, was also of the party, 

 and she now pressed forward with such marked 

 interest that her master put the question to her too. 

 At this Use started rapping and spelt out the correct 

 name the tree was a larch. Her master was greatly 

 surprised at this, suggested, however, that it was 

 probably less a matter of knowledge than of thought- 

 transference, yet Dr. Oelhausen queries whether 

 the dog might not have heard the name mentioned 

 on some previous outing, and her master admits that 

 this might have been the case. 



" We know the unfaltering tenacity with which the 

 Mannheim dog, Rolf, remembers names, so that it 

 would seem more reasonable to ascribe the spelling 

 of the name to her excellent memory than to thought- 

 transference, which would be quite as inexplicable and 

 incomprehensible. I : 



" To the above I may add one more incident touching 



