Nov. 12, 1885] 



NATURE 



45 



Ejof. Chrystal's condensation hygrometer, though its tempera- 

 ture was lowered to 9°'o. These quite exceptional arid states of 

 the air on Ben Nevis during the past summer are of the greatest 

 interest, especially in their relations to the unprecedentedly 

 severe early frosts which were so destructive to the potato and 

 cereal crops over extensive breadths of the country during Sep- 

 tember. It was reported that since the middle of August sub- 

 scriptions to the amount of about 300/. had been already received 

 from the original subscribers, and it was resolved to make the 

 claims of the Observatory more widely known. At the same 

 meeting the Council resolved that the discussion of the ob-erva- 

 tions of the temperature of the sea round Scotland be undertaken 

 by the Scottish Marine Station at Granton chiefly with the view 

 of constructing isothermal maps of the sea for each month 

 round the Scottish coasts. The Secretary reported that he had 

 duiing the summer inspected twenty-six of the Society's stations. 

 The Duke of Buccleuch, and Messrs. Donald Beith, W.S. ; 

 Robert Irvine of Royston; B. N. Feach, Geological Survey : and 

 John Horn, also of the Geological Survey, were elected members 

 of the Society. 



T 



ON THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE DOG ' 

 HE man and the dog have Jived together in more or less 

 intimate association for many thousands of years, and yet 

 it must be confessed that they know comparatively little of one 

 another. That the dog is a loyal, true, and affectionate friend 

 must be gratefully admitted, but when we come to consider the 

 psychical nature of the animal, the limits of our knowledge are 

 almost immediately reached. I have elsewhere suggested that 

 this arises very much from the fact that hitherto we have tried 

 to teach animals, rather than to learn from them— to convey our 

 ideas to them, rather than to devise any language or code of 

 signals by means of which they might communicate theirs to us. 

 The former may be more important from a utilitarian point of 

 view, though even this is questionable, but psychologically it is 

 far less interesting. Under these circumstances it occurred to 

 me whether some such system as that followed with deaf mutes, 

 and especially by Dr. Howe with Laura Bridgman, might not 

 prove veiy instructive if adapted to the case of dogs. I have 

 tried this in a small way with a black poodle named "Van." 

 I took two pieces of cardboard about 10 inches by 3, and on one 

 of them printed in large letters the word "food," leaving the 

 other blank. I then placed two cards over two saucers, and in 

 the one under the "food" card put a little bread and milk, 

 which "Van," after having his attention called to the card, was 

 allowed to eat. This was repeated over and over again till he 

 had had enough. In about ten days he began to distinguish 

 between the two cards. I then put them on the floor and made 

 him bring them to me, which he did readily enough. When he 

 brought the plain card I simply threw it back, while, when he 

 brought the food card, I gave him a piece of bread, and in about 

 a month he had pretty well learned to realise the diflference. I 

 then had some other cards printed with the words "out," "tea," 

 "bone," "water," spelt phonetically, so as not to trouble him 

 by our intricate spelling, and a certain number also with words 

 to which I did not intend him to attach any significance, such as 

 "nought," "plain," "ball,"&c. "Van" soon learned that 

 bringing a card was a request, and soon learned to distinguish 

 betvveen the plain and printed cards ; it took him longer to 

 realise the difference between words, but he gradually got to 

 recognise several, such as "fooil," "out," "bone," "tea," &c. 

 If he was asked whether he would like to go out for a walk, he 

 would joyfully pick up the "out " card, choosing it from several 

 others, and bring it to me, or run with it in evident triumph to 

 the door. I need hardly say that the cards were not always put 

 in the same places. They were varied quite indiscriminately 

 and in a great variety of positions. Nor could the dog recognise 

 them by scent. They were all alike, and all continually handled 

 by us. Still I did not trust to that alone, but had a number 

 printed for each word. When, for instance, he brought a card 

 with "food" on it, we did not put down the same identical 

 card, but another bearing the same word, when he had brought 

 that a third, then a fourth, and so on. For a single meal, 

 therefore, eighteen or twenty cards would be used, so that he 

 evidently is not guided by scent. No one who has seen him look 

 down a row of cards and pick up the one he wanted could, I think, 

 doubt that in bringing a card he feels he is making a request, 



' Abstract of paper by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., re.ld at 

 the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association. 



and that he can not only distinguish one card from another, but 

 also associate the word and the object. This is, of course, only 

 a beginning, but it is, I venture to think, suggestive, and might 

 be carried further, though the limited wants and aspirations of the 

 animal constitute a great difficulty. My wife has a very beautiful 

 and charming collie, " Patience," to which we are much attached. 

 This dog was often in the room when "Van" brought the food 

 card, and was rewarded with a piece of bread. She must have 

 seen this thousands of times, and she begged in the usual 

 manner, but never once did it occur to her to bring a card. She 

 did not touch or indeed even take the slightest notice of them. 

 I then tried the following experiment : — I prepared six cards 

 about 10 inches by three, and coloured in pairs — two yellow, 

 two blue, and two orange. I put three of them on the floor, 

 and then holding up one of the others, endeavoured to teach 

 " Van " to bring me the duplicate. That is to say, that if the 

 blue was held up, he should fetch the corresponding colour from 

 the floor ; if yellow, he should fetch the yellow, and so on. 

 When he brought the wrong card he was made to drop it, and 

 return for another till he brought the right one, when he was 

 rewarded with a little food. The lessons were generally given 

 by my assistant. Miss Wendland, and lasted half an hour, during 

 which time he brought the right card on an average about 

 twenty-five times. I certainly thought that he would soon have 

 grasped what was expected of him. But no. We continued 

 the lessons for nearly three months, but as a few days were 

 missed, we may say for ten weeks, and yet at the end of the 

 time I cannot say that "Van" appeared to have the least idea 

 of what was expected of him. It seemed a matter of pure 

 accident which card he brought. There is, I believe, no reason 

 to doubt that dogs can distinguish colours ; but as it was just 

 possilile that " Van " might be colour blind, we then repeated 

 the same experiment, only substituting for the coloured cards 

 others marked respectively I., II., and III. This we continued 

 for another three months, or, say, allowing for intermissions, 

 ten weeks, but to my surprise entirely without success. I was 

 rather disappointed at this, as, if it had succeeded, the plan 

 would have opened out many interesting lines of inquiry. Still 

 in such a case one ought not to wish for one result more than 

 another, as of course the object of all such experiments is merely 

 to elicit the truth, and our result in the present case, though 

 negative, is very interesting. I do not, however, regard it as 

 by any means conclusive, and should be glad to see it repeated. 

 If the result proved to be the same, it would certainly imply 

 very little power of combining even extremely simple ideas. I 

 then endeavoured to get some insight into the arithmetical con- 

 dition of the dog's mind. On this subject I have been able to 

 find but little in any of the standard works on the intelligence of 

 animals. Considering, however, the veiy limited powers of 

 savage men in this respect— that no Australian language, for 

 instance, contains numerals even up to four, no Australian being 

 able to count his own fingers even on one hand — we cannot be 

 surprised if other animals have made but little progress. Still, 

 it is surprising that so little attention should have been directed 

 to this subject. Leroy, who, though he expresses the^ opinion 

 that " the nature of the soul of animals is unimportant," was an 

 excellent observer, mentions a case in which a man was anxious 

 to shoot a crow. "To deceive this suspicious bird, the plan 

 was hit upon of sending two men to the watch-house, one of 

 whom passed on, while the other remained ; but the crow 

 counted and kept her distance. The next day three went, and 

 again she perceived that only two retired. In fine, it was found 

 necessary to send five or six men to the watch-house to put her 

 out in her calculation. The crow, thinking that this numlierof 

 men had passed by, lost no time in returning." From tljis he 

 inferred that crows could count up to four. Lichtenberg men- 

 tions a nightingale which was said to count up to three. Every 

 day he gave it three mealworms, one at a time ; when it had 

 finished one it returned for another, but after the third it kn.-w 

 that the feast was over. I do not find that any of the recent 

 writers on the intelligence of animals, either Buchner, or Peilz, or 

 Romanes, in either of his books, give any additional evidence on 

 this part of the subject. Thereare, however, variousscatterednotices. 

 For instance, there is an amusing and suggestive remark in 

 Mr. G.alton's interesting "Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical 

 South Africa." After describing the Damana's weakness in cal- 

 culations, he says : — " Once while I watched a Damara flounder- 

 ing hopelessly in a calculation on one side of me, I observed 

 'Dinah,' my spaniel, equally embarrassed on the other; she 

 was overlooking half a dozen of her new-born puppies, 



