01!^ THE SENSE OF SMELL IN DOGS. 



65 



Experiments on the Sense of Smell in Dogs. 

 By Geoege J. EoMANEs, LL.D., F.E.S., F.L.S. 



[Read 16th December, 1886.] 



Of all the phenomena presented by the higher evolution of 

 sense-organs in the Animal Kingdom, to my mind the most 

 remarkable is the acuteness of olfactory perception which is 

 exhibited by certain orders of Mammalia. All the other faculties 

 of special sense are, so to speak, more evenly distributed through- 

 out the vertebrated series ; so that when we compare our own 

 sense of sight, of hearing, or of taste, with those of vertebrated 

 animals in general, we at once recognize that they are comparable. 

 But such is not the case with the sense of smell ; for in many of the 

 Carnivora, Euminants, &c., this sense has undergone so enormous 

 a development as to be suggestive of dilfering from our own, not 

 merely in degree, but in kind. Any one, for example, who is ac- 

 customed to deer-stalking must often have been freshly astonished 

 at the precautions which it is needful to take in order to prevent 

 the game from getting wind of the sportsman. Indeed, to a 

 novice such precautions are apt to be regarded as implying a 

 superstitious exaggeration of the possibilities of olfactory per- 

 ception ; and it is not until he has himself seen the deer scent 

 him at some almost incredible distance that he lends himself 

 without disguised contempt to the direction of the keeper. Yet 

 among the Carnivora the sense of smell is even more extraordi- 

 nary. Here, for instance, is an observation upon the subject 

 which I published several years ago, and which I now quote be- 

 cause it led to the experiments which it is the object of this 

 paper to detail: — 



" I once tried an experiment with a terrier of my own which 

 shows, better than any thing that I have ever read, the almost 

 supernatural capabilities of smell in Dogs. On a Bank 

 holiday, when the broad walk in Begent's Park was swarming 

 with people of all kinds, walking in all directions, I took my 

 terrier (which I knew had a splendid nose, and could track me 

 for miles) along the walk, and, when his attention was diverted 

 by a strange dog, I suddenly made a number of zigzags across 

 the broad walk, then stood on a »eat, and watched the terrier. 

 Eluding I had not continued in the direction I was going when 

 he left me, he went to the place where he had last seen me, and 

 there, picking up my scent, tracked my footsteps over all the 



