CANIS. 



genus of Mammalia, of the order Ferae. 

 Generic character : six upper foreteeth ; 

 lateral ones longer, distant ; the inter- 

 mediate ones lobate ; in the lower jaw 

 six, lateral ones lobated ; tusks solitary 

 and incurvated; grinders six or seven, 

 or more than in other genera of this or- 

 der. 



This genus is distinguished by its vora- 

 city, and by tearing what it devours. It is 

 unable to climb trees; can move with 

 great swiftness ; has the crown of its 

 head usually flat, with a lengthened snout; 

 its body very considerably thicker before 

 than behind ; its claws are long, some- 

 what curved, but nol retractile. The fe- 

 male produces many at a time, and has 

 usually four teats on the breast and six 

 on Hu. belly. In the savage state of the 

 dog, his irritable and ferocious character 

 renders him a dangerous enemy to other 

 animals; but, when domesticated, his 

 grand object appears to be to please his 

 employers, and to convert to their ser- 

 vice his courage, his swiftness, and all 

 his striking and valuable instincts. He is 

 extremely docile, and accommodates him- 

 self to the manners and habits of those 

 with whom he lives, with a facility which 

 furnishes an admirable lesson. His vigi- 

 lance over whatever is committed to his 

 charge is connected with a courage in de- 

 fence of it, arising even to rage. His sus- 

 p cii ns are perpetually alive : his infe- 

 rences, with respect to the just grounds 

 of apprehension, are astonishingly judi- 

 cious and correct, and he not only sounds 

 the tocsin of alarm to the whole family 

 by which he is employed as centinel, but 

 darts on a supposed culprit with a vigour 

 and intrepidity, which generally over- 

 whelm the power of resistance. By the 

 assistance of the dog, man has reduced 

 the other animals to slavery. Dangerous 

 and ferocious beasts are hunted down by 

 its means. By conciliating, among the 

 various animals by which he was sur- 

 rounded, those, which, at the same time 

 that they abound in energies, are also ca- 

 pable of affection and obedience, man 

 has been enabled to oppose and destroy 

 others, with which he would have been 

 able to establish no compromise, whose 

 ferocity is untameable, and whose power 

 is connected only with ravage and desola- 

 tion. The training of the dog was proba- 

 bly one of ihe first objects of the atten- 

 tion of man, and aided him extremely in 

 subduing the earth to his unmolested go- 

 vernment. 



The capability of instruction, and the 

 imitative powers of the dog, have fur- 

 nished innumerable curious and interest. 



ing anecdotes. A Florentine nobleman 

 possesed a dog, which would attend his 

 table and change his plates, and carry his 

 wine to him with the utmost steadiness, 

 and the most accurate attention to his 

 master's nc f ices. 



It is related by the illustrious Leibnitz, 

 that a Saxon peasant was in possession of 

 a dog, of the middling size, and about 

 three years of age, which the peasant's 

 son, perceiving accidentally, as he ima- 

 gined, some resemblance in its sounds to 

 those of the human voice, attempted to 

 teach it to speak. By the perseverance 

 of the lad, the dog acquired the power, 

 we are told, of pronouncing about thirty 

 words. It would, however, exercise this 

 extraordinary faculty only with reluc- 

 tance, the words being first spoken al- 

 ways by the preceptor, and then echoed 

 by the pupil. The circumstance is al- 

 tested by Leibnitz, who himself heard it 

 speak, and was communicated by him in 

 a memoir to the Royal Academy of 

 France. 



In the theatre of Marcellus, what many 

 will consider more probable, but what is 

 still extraordinary, is mentioned to have 

 occurred, by Plutarch. A dog was here 

 exhibited, who excelled in various dances 

 of great complication and difficulty, and 

 represented also the effects of disease 

 and pain upon the frame, in all the con- 

 tortions of countenance and writhings of 

 the body, from the first access to that 

 paroxysm, which often immediately pre- 

 cedes dissolution : having thus apparent- 

 ly expired in agony, he would suffer him- 

 self to be carried about motionless, as in 

 a state of death, and, after a sufficient con- 

 tinuance of the jest, he would burst upon 

 the spectators with an animation and 

 sportiveness, which formed a very inter- 

 esting conclusion of this curious inter- 

 lude, by which the animal seemed to en- 

 joy the success of his scenic efforts, and 

 to be delighted with the admiration 

 which was^liberally and universally be- 

 stowed upon men. 



This genus comprehends twenty-one 

 species, several of which, particularly the 

 C. familiaris, 'include numerous varieties. 

 The following appear principally deserv- 

 ing of notice. 



The C. familiaris, or the familiar dog, 

 of which the variety known by the name 

 of the shepherd's dog is imagined to ap- 

 proach most nearly to the original animal. 

 Its use is inferible from its designation. 

 It keeps the ff ock collected, and defends 

 it from injury. In the Alps, and some 

 other regions of Europe, it is considerably 



