284 MR. HUGGINS'S EXPERIMENT. 



it seems surprising that so little attention lias been 

 directed to this part of the subject. One would fancy 

 that there ought to be no great difficulty in determining 

 how far an animal can count; and whether, for in- 

 stance, it could realize some very simple sum, such as 

 that two and two make four. But when we come to 

 consider how this is to be done, the problem ceases to 

 appear so simple. We tried our dogs by putting a 

 piece of bread before them, and preventing them from 

 touching it until we had counted seven. To prevent 

 ourselves from unintentionally giving any indication, 

 we used a metronome (the instrument used for marking 

 time when practising the pianoforte), and to make the 

 beats more evident we attached a slender rod to the 

 pendulum. It certainly seemed as if our dogs knew 

 when the moment of permission had arrived ; but their 

 movement of taking the bread was scarcely so definite 

 as to place the matter beyond a doubt. Moreover, 

 dogs are so very quick in seizing any indication given 

 them, even unintentionally, that, on the whole, the 

 attempt was not satisfactory to my mind. I was the 

 more discouraged from continuing the experiment in 

 this manner by an account Mr. Huggins gave me of a 

 very intelligent dog belonging to him. A number of 

 cards were placed on the ground, numbered respectively 

 1, 2, 3, and so on up to 10. A question was then asked : 

 the square root of 9 or 16, or such a sum as 6-f-55 — 3. 

 Mr. Huggins pointed consecutively to the cards, and 

 the dog always barked when he came to the right one. 

 Now, Mr. Huggins did not consciously give the dog any 

 sign, yet so quick was the dog in seizing the slightest 

 indication, that he was able to give the correct answer. 

 "The mode of procedui-e is this. His master tells 



