106 GOOD QUALITIES OF THE DOG. 



They know not of the eminence 



Which marks him to my reasoning sense; 



They know but that he is a man, 



And still to them is kind, and glads them all lie can. 



And hence their quiet looks confiding ; 



Hence grateful instincts, seated deep, 



By whose strong bond, were ill betiding, 



They'd lose their own, his life to keep. 



What joy to watch in lower creature 



Such dawning of a moral nature, 



And how (the rule all things obey) 



They look to a higher mind to be their law and stay !" 



The subject of the intellectual and moral qualities of the inferior animals 

 is one highly interesting and somewhat misunderstood urged perhaps to 

 a ridiculous extent by some persons, yet altogether neglected by others who 

 have no feeling for any but themselves. 



Anatomists have compared the relative bulk of the brain in different 

 animals, and the result is not a little interesting. In man the weight of 

 the brain amounts on the average to l-30th part of the body. In the 

 Newfoundland dog it does not amount to l-60th part, or to 1 -100th part in 

 the poodle and barbet, and not to more than 1 -300th part in the ferocious 

 and stupid bull-dog. 



"When the brain is cut, it is found to be composed of two substances, 

 essentially different in construction and function the cortical and the 

 medullary. The first is small in quantity, and principally concerned in the 

 food and reproduction of the animal, and the cineritious in a great measure 

 the register of the mind. Brute strength seems to be the character of the 

 former, and superior intelligence of the latter. There is, comparing bulk 

 Avith bulk, less of the medullary substance in the horse than in the ox and 

 in the dog than in the horse and they are characterized as the sluggish 

 ox, the intelligent horse, and the intellectual and companionable dog. 



From the medullary substance proceed certain cords or prolongations, 

 termed nerves, by which the animal is enabled to receive impressions from 

 surrounding objects and to connect himself with them, and also to possess 

 many pleasurable or painful sensations. One of them is spread over the 

 membrane of the nose, and gives the sense of smell ; another expands on 

 the back of the eye, and the faculty of sight is gained ; a third goes to the 

 internal structure of the ear, and the animal is conscious of sound. Other 

 nerves, proceeding to different parts, give the faculty of motion, while an 

 equally important one bestows the power of feeling. One division, spring- 

 ing from a prolongation of the brain, and yet within the skull, wanders to 

 different parts of the frame, for important purposes connected with respira- 

 tion or breathing. The act of breathing is essential to life, and were it to 

 cease, the animal would die. 



There are other nerves the sympathetic so called from their union and 

 sympathy with all the others, and identified with life itself. They proceed 

 from a small ganglion or enlargement in the upper part of the neck, or from 

 a collection of minute ganglia within the abdomen. They go to the heart, 

 and it beats ; and to the stomach, and it digests. They form a net-work 

 round each vessel, and the frame is nourished and built up. They are desti- 

 tute of sensation, and they are perfectly beyond the control of the will. 



We have been accustomed, and properly, to regard the nervous system, 

 or that portion of it which is connected with animal life that which ren- 



