FAULTS OF TERMINOLOGY. 13 



regard they can at least be trained into so desirable a con- 

 dition of affairs. 



5. It is even a greater indignity to offer to the noblest 

 of all the lower animals to describe a contemptible person 

 as ' a dog,' 6 a dirty dog,' ' an ugly dog,' or * a sly dog ; ' to 

 refer to a human dandy as ' a puppy,' or to a mean, shabby 

 human scoundrel as ' a hound ; ' though it may be legitimate 

 enough to characterise a chattel as * dog chea.p.' 



6. The word cannibalism is derived from canis (a dog), or 

 at least is said by the dictionaries to be so. But the practice 

 of destroying each other or their young, for the purpose of 

 eating their victims or not, is quite as common in man as 

 in any of the lower animals ; and there is no good ground 

 why the dog's generic name should be selected in the nomen- 

 clature of so horrible a procedure or practice. 



7. ' A dog in the manger ' spirit is said to be possessed 

 by a man who neither will nor can use a thing himself, nor 

 allow the use or enjoyment of it to those who have both the 

 will and the ability to employ it to good purpose ; but in 

 point of fact a dog in his manger frequently gives his pro- 

 tection to, and shares even his food with, companions of 

 very different genera and species. 



8. ( Give a dog a bad name, and you may as well hang 

 him,' is literally applicable to unfortunate animals sus- 

 pected of rabies. Whatever may be the case with men, to 

 whom the phrase is applied figuratively, the dog to which 

 this particular kind of bad name is given is usually wholly 

 undeserving of it, and if properly treated would prove 

 itself in nine cases out of ten to be a harmless, respectable 

 animal. 



9. We apply the words ' an old cat,' or ' spiteful as a 

 cat,' to backbiting scandal and all manner of spitefulness ; 

 and no doubt the cat is occasionally spiteful, or may be 

 supposed to be so ; but it is not distinctively so, and it is 

 far less so than many men, and especially women, while 

 the poor cat has many admirable qualities for the posses- 

 sion of which it gets no credit. 



10. We say of a consequential, pompous, empty-headed 

 coxcomb that he is c proud or vain as a peacock ; ' but the 



