NA TURE 



\yan. 3, i! 



sound. No one, nevertheless, ever seems to have paid 

 the smallest attention to his evolutionary theories. Even 

 Silvestre, who pronounced his elos:i; at a public meeting 

 of the Sociifte Royale d'Agriculture in 1827, abstains from 

 the slightest reference to them. 



While in his experiments and his mode of drawing 

 conclusions from them Duchesne strongly recalls the 

 method of Mr. Darwin, the parallel cannot be carried 

 further. In so far as he obtained a glimpse at the 

 modern doctrine of evolution it was in the form after- 

 wards formulated by Lamarck. Of the part played by 

 the struggle for e.Kistence in the matter I find no trace in 

 his writings. W. T. Thiselton Dyer 



TEACHING ANIMALS TO CONVERSE 



lY/TR. DARWIN'S notes on Instinct, recently published 

 ■'■♦-'■ by my friend Mr. Romanes, have again called our 

 attention to the interesting subject of instinct in animals. 



Miss Martineau once remarked that, considering how 

 long we have lived in close association with animals, it is 

 astonishing how little we know about them, and especially 

 about their mental condition. This applies with especial 

 force to our domestic animals, and above all of course to 

 dogs. 



I believe that it 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. No doubt 

 the former process is interesting and instructive, but it 

 doesvnot carry us very far. 



Under these circumstances it has occurred to me 

 whether some such system as that followed with deaf- 

 mutes, especially by Dr. Howe with Laura Bridgman, 

 might not prove very instructive if adapted to the case of 

 dogs. 



Accordingly I prepared some pieces of stout cardboard, 

 and printed on each in legible letters a word such as 

 " Food," " Bone," " Out," &c. The head master of one 

 of the deaf and dumb schools kindly agreed to assist me. 

 We each began with a terrier puppy, but neither of us 

 obtained any satisfactory results. My dog indeed was 

 lost before I had had him long. I then began training a 

 black poodle, " V'an " by name, kindly given me by my 

 friend Mr. Nickalls. I commenced by giving the dog 

 food in a saucer, over which I laid the card on which was 

 the word " Food,'' placing also by the side an empty 

 saucer, covered by a plain card. 



"Van' soon learnt to distinguish between the two, 

 and the next stage was to teach him to bring me the 

 card ; this he now does, and hands it to me quite prettily, 

 and I then give him a bone, or a little food, or take him 

 out, according to the card brought. He still brings some- 

 times a plain card, in which case I pcint out his error, 

 and he then takes it back and changes it. This however 

 does not often happen. Yesterday morning, for instance, 

 " Van" brought me the card with " Food" on it, nine 

 times in succession, selecting it from among other plain 

 cards, though I changed the relative position every time. 



No one who sees him can doubt that he understands 

 the act of bringing the card with the word " Food " on it 

 as a request for something to eat, and that he distinguishes 

 between it and a plain card. I also believe that he dis- 

 tinguishes for instance between the card with the word 

 " Food" on it and the card with " Out " on it. 



This then seems to open up a method, which may be 

 carried much further, for it is obvious that the cards may 

 be multiplied, and the dog thus enabled to communicate 

 freely with us. I have as )et, I know, made only a very 

 small beginning, and hope to carry the experiment much 

 further, but my object in sending this communication is 

 twofold. in the first place I trust that some of the 



readers of Nature may be able and willing to suggest 

 extensions and improvements of the idea. 



Secondly, my spare time is small and liable to many 

 interruptions; animals also we know differ greatly from 

 one another. Now many of your readers have favourite 

 dogs, and I would express a hope that some of them may 

 be disposed to study them in the manner indicated. 



The observations, even though negative, would be 

 interesting; but I confess I hope that some positive 

 results might follow, which would enable us to obtain a 

 more correct insight into the minds of animals than we 

 have yet acquired. John Lubbock 



High Elms, Down, Kent, December 20, 1883 



THE FRENCH DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION 

 OF 1883 

 T HAVE just returned from a very short visit to Paris, 

 •'■ made for the purpose of inspecting the Mollusca 

 which were procured during last summer's deep-sea ex- 

 pedition in the French Govermnent steamer Talisman. 

 The expedition was under the scientific charge of Prof. 

 .Alphonse Milne-Edwards. For the opportunity of this 

 inspection I was indebted to the kindness of my friend 

 Dr. Paul Fischer, whose reputation as a conchologist is 

 so well known. 



The course of the expedition was along the Atlantic 

 coasts of Spain, Marocco, Sahara, Senegal, Cape Verde 

 Isles, the Canaries, and Azores ; and the time occupied 

 was three months. More full and accurate particulars 

 will very shortly be given by Prof. A. Milne- Edwards to 

 the Academy of Sciences, and be i-ublished in their 

 Coinptes Rcitdits. The collection will be exhibited next 

 month to public view. The greatest depth explored 

 was about 2200 fathoms. The trawl was mostly used. 

 Life was plentiful everywhere. As was the case in the 

 Porcupine, CJialUnger, and other expeditions of the same 

 kind, many animals (especially Crustacea) at the greatest 

 depths were highly and brightly coloured, some of them 

 having large eyes, and others being blind or eyeless. 

 There was an abundance of hitherto unknown forms 

 (genera and species) in every department of zoology — 

 fishes, Mollusca, Polyzoa, Crustacea, Annelids, Echino- 

 derms. Polyps, Corals, Foraminifcra, and Sponges 

 Among the Mollusca were some remarkable cases of the 

 wide distribution of species in respect of space as well as 

 of depth. For instance, boreal shells, such as Fusits 

 islaiidicus and F. bcruicicnsis, which inhabit northern seas 

 at moderate depths, viz. 50 to 80 fathoms, were found living 

 off the coast of Marocco, and the latter species even 

 below the tropic of Capricorn, at depths of from 450 to 

 2200 fathoms. Lima excavdta, considered a peculiarly 

 Norwegian species, was likewise obtained off the Moorish 

 coast, of a very large size ; it was recorded by Prof. 

 .Seguenza as a Pliocene fossil of Sicily and Calabria, 

 under the name of Lima gigantea. In the Porcupine 

 Expedition of 1S70 fragments were dredged off Cape St. 

 \'incent; and in the tV/f^/Av/^tv Expedition this fine species 

 was obtained from :o to 175 fathoms off Western Pata- 

 gonia and Japan. A bivalve (Scrohicit/aria longicallus), 

 which in northern seas inhabits moderate depths, was 

 procured in many places by the Talisman, at depths 

 varying from 350 to 1429 fathoms. It occurred living in 

 thedeepcit dredgings of the /"on /(■//wf Expedition of 1869, 

 off the coast of Brittany, at a depth of 2435 fathoms. 

 Many Mollusca {e.g. Pecten vitretis, Limopsis mimtta, 

 Dentaliuin agile, Trochus ottoi, Cohimbella haliaeti, and 

 Scap/iander punctostriatus) seem to inhabit the depths 

 of the North Atlantic in every part, from one side to the 

 other. The smaller shells in the Talisman collection 

 have not yet been picked out. The Marquis de Folin 

 will, with his usual care and industry, undertake that 

 part of the work, which will occupy some time ; he has 

 requested me to examine and name those species which 



