THE GREAT DOG-SUPERSTITION 288 



uncontrolled. His sense of smell is much keener 

 than ours ; it is probably more to him than sight 

 is to us ; he lives in it, and the odours that are 

 agreeable to him afford him the highest pleasure of 

 which he is capable. We can do much with a dog, 

 but there is a limit to what we can do ; we can no 

 more alter the character of his sense of smell than 

 we can alter the colour of his blood. 



" The dog is a worshipper of man," says Dr. 

 Lauder Lindsay, " and is, or may be, made in the 

 image of the being he worships." That refers 

 merely to the animal's intellectual and moral 

 nature ; or, in other words, it is the fashionable 

 " inverted or biological anthropomorphism " of the 

 day, of which we shall all probably be heartily 

 ashamed by and by ; just now we are concerned 

 with a more important matter, to wit, the dog's 

 nose. Its character may be seen even in the most 

 artificial breeds, that is to say, in those which have 

 most widely diverged from the parent-form and are 

 entirely dependent on us, such as pugs and toy- 

 terriers. The pampered lap-dog in the midst of 

 his comforts has one great thorn in his side, one 

 perpetual misery to endure, in the perfumes which 

 please his mistress. He too is a little Venetian in 

 his way, but his way is not hers. The camphor- 

 wood chest in her room is an offence to him, the 

 case of glass-stoppered scents an abomination. All 

 fragrant flowers are as asafoetida to his exquisite 

 nostrils, and his face is turned aside in very ill- 

 concealed disgust from the sandal- wood box or fan. 



