52 The Carnivora. 
noses about on the floor in search of it, even when it is no 
distance from them. A few days ago, therefore, I prepared 
some dozen or so of dainty pieces of meat, both raw and cooked, 
and some pieces of fried cod and herring, and, taking my dog 
into a room from which every ray of light had been excluded, 
threw pieces of the meat into different parts of the room. As 
might have been expected, each piece was found by him almost 
as soon as the first could be eaten. The house cat was after- 
wards tried in the same room, and had great difficulty in finding 
pieces dropped close to her, failing altogether in securing some 
of them. What the dog accomplished in the space of a minute, 
the cat could not do in a quarter of an hour; for, on letting 
light into the room, I found pieces of the fish lying about in the 
further corners. There was no comparison between the one and 
the other in the manner of searching for the food. The dog 
went to work with confidence, and, after a few seconds employed 
in sniffing round, could be heard eating until every piece of 
meat had been found. The cat, on the contrary, walked abuut 
mewing, and seemed to have no idea of the presence of the fish 
until she was close to it. The cat was quite familiar with me, 
and had been kept a long time without food intentionally. I 
used fish because it was a food to which she was accustomed, 
and calculated to emit sufficient smell. The result impressed 
me with the conviction that cats discover food by smell with 
very indifferent success; whence perhaps it may be inferred 
that their perceptions generally through this sense are more 
feeble than those of some animals.” 
To this Dr. Darwin replied, in his wonted spirit of generous 
encouragement of investigation : ‘The experiments on the sense 
of smell in cats and dogs seem to me very good. From your 
previous note, I know you do not believe in the stories of cats 
returning home over unknown ground; but if such a case is 
mentioned in Nature, I would suggest .your sending your ex- 
periment to that journal for publication, as bearing on Mr. 
Wallace’s theory, which I am half inclined to admit.” The 
last sentence will be of interest to students of natural history, 
