i6 



Chapters on Animals. 



scents that are strong for us may be faint for dogs, and 

 vice-versa. Odours are not positive but relative, they 

 are sensations simply, and the same cause does not pro- 

 duce the same sensation in different organisms. A dog 

 rolls himself on carrion, and unreflecting people think this 

 a proof of a disgustingly bad taste on his part ; but it is 

 evident that the carrion gives him a sensation entirely diff- 



POINTER AND GREYHOUND. 



erent from that which it produces in ourselves. I know a 

 man who says that to him the odour of any cheese what- 

 ever, even the freshest and soundest, is disgusting beyond 

 the power of language to express ; is it not evident that 

 cheese produces in him a sensation altogether different 

 from what it causes in most of us ? The smell and taste 

 of dogs may be not the less refined and delicate that they 

 differ widely from our own. The cause of the most hor- 

 rible of all smells in my own experience is a mouse, but 

 the same cause produces, it is probable, an effect 



