50 LOLA 



I then held this a few inches (40 centimetres) from her 

 eyes and, pointing to each, said : " One dot looks 

 like i," etc. And then I wrote a 2 on a slip of paper 

 and asked her what number it stood for. At the 

 start this gave her a good deal of trouble, and I had 

 to do a great deal of talking. She saw the dot right 

 enough, but would give no attention to the figure. 

 I helped her twice to compare the two, and then set 

 the sheet up near the place where she usually lay, 

 taking for granted that in the course of the day her 

 eye would be bound to rest on it so frequently that 

 she would probably have retained the impression by 

 the next day. And something of this kind must 

 have happened ; for on the following morning after 

 having gone through the explanation once more, and 

 put the sheet aside, I wrote the figures at random all over 

 another sheet of paper when she actually " spotted" 

 them all with the exception of " 7," and a comparison 

 of the two sheets soon enabled her to put this right, 

 too. There could be no doubt but that she had 

 really mastered her lesson, for the replies were rapped 

 out with absolute certainty. I next attempted two- 

 figured numerals ; nor was this very difficult, for in 

 32, for instance, the 3 was rapped by the left the 

 " decimal " paw and therefore meant "30," while 

 the " 2 " was added by two raps from the right paw ; 

 in fact, she memorized this without any trouble and 

 for a few days we practised " reading numbers " 

 assiduously, so as to get her perfect. 

 Here is an example : 



20 + 14 ? Answer : 34. 24 + 32 ? Answer : 56. 

 ii 4- 15 + 2 ? Answer : 28 



Here again the most surprising thing was the celerity 

 with which the replies were given. I was at first 



