80 LOLA 



put the question to her about twenty times and then 

 when she has been in good health, so that I feel that 

 the matter has not yet been sufficiently put to the proof, 

 and I cannot, therefore, make any very definite state- 

 ments with regard to this particular faculty. But I 

 must add, that to two questions put to her on different 

 days, she answered that she " liked her food best at 

 6 of warmth ! " Now this chimes with the advice 

 given in many a book on the care of dogs ; "do not 

 give them their food too hot " and Lola's remark 

 reminded me of this, though I might consider that 

 " degree of heat " practically cool . . . yet it 

 appeared to be what she desired. Nevertheless, this 

 preference turned out shortly to have been erroneous 

 and, as the result of a practical trial, Lola changed her 

 mind and voted for anything " between 12 16 ! " 

 Here is one more test I put with regard to her suscepti- 

 bility to touch : I got someone else to trace figures 

 with their fingers on the dog's back, placing myself 

 so that I could not see what was being described ; then 

 I put the questions, and each time her replies tallied 

 almost invariably. One put to her in this manner 

 was : " 2 -f- 3 ? " ; and " 5 " was given at once. While 

 " 7 4- 4 ? " elicited a prompt " n." Then a number 

 was described and I said : " Twice this number 

 makes ? " ; to which she replied "8," four having been 

 traced on her back. We only tried this new test for a 

 few days so that I can give no more exact details 

 about it excepting this, that on that particular day, 

 she would only understand the figures if inscribed in 

 this manner on her back ! It evidently amused her 

 immensely, and we could see that she seemed to 

 " transfer her attention," as it were, elsewhere. But 

 though this test had been so successful with numerals, 

 it failed entirely with letters. This was incidentally 



