304 SENSITIVENESS. 



Among the results of emotion that have not been other- 

 wise specially described are 



1. Proneness to take offence frequently at trifles, or 

 where no offence is intended a vivid or morbid imagination 

 attaching ideas of offensiveness to the actions of man or 

 other animals, a phenomenon treated of in the chapter on 

 ' Delusion and Dreaming.' 



Some dogs are quite as ready to give, as others are to 

 take, offence (Houzeau, Cobbe). The dog takes offence at 

 things merely said of him by man, and sometimes never 

 either forgets or forgives them (Watson). The cat takes 

 offence by refusing to eat, and indulging in prolonged, sulky 

 indignation (Watson) . 



This readiness to take offence is usually associated with 

 irritability of temper, and with a tendency to suspiciousness. 

 It has been noted in a considerable variety of animals, in- 

 cluding the parroquet (Davies), dog, elephant, the tocque 

 and other monkeys (Cassell). Such animals are naturally or 

 morbidly touchy or testy what in man is called ' thin- 

 skinned.' And what is of practical importance to man, this 

 touchiness is only too apt to lead to retaliation the repay- 

 ment of offence, real or fancied, by offence, perhaps of a 

 serious kind. 



2. The resentment of wrong on the one hand, and the 

 forgiveness or endurance of injury on the other. 



3. Not the least important of the results of sensitiveness 

 to moral influences is the remarkable susceptibility shown, 

 especially by dogs, to those forms of remedial treatment in 

 which moral influences predominate, or which consist exclu- 

 sively of such influences. 



The efficiency of what is called in man moral treatment is 

 discussed in the chapters on ( The Treatment of Insanity,' 

 ' The General Treatment of other Animals by Man/ ' The 

 Moral Causation of Insanity,' and 'Education.' Moral treat- 

 ment is as frequently, and in the same way, conducive to 

 recovery from disease bodily as well as mental in other 

 animals as in man; in other words, gentle usage, kind 

 words, looks, and actions are more efficacious frequently 

 than any boluses or drenches . 



