HA RD WI CKE ' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Whelher some poisonous products (some of the 

 alkaloids, for instance), have now come to be of other 

 uses in the economy of the respective plants, we do 

 not know. We cannot, however, doubt that most of 

 these properties, except perhaps when very slight, 

 have been developed through the influence exerted 

 on the vegetable world by the animal kingdom since 

 they first came into close contact. The poisons of 

 plants must therefore be regarded as purely defensive 

 weapons, and the peculiar nauseous odour, the dark, 

 lurid, ugly colours and generally repellent appear- 

 ance of most poisonous plants, warn all animals of 

 their dangerous nature. 



CAN DOGS TALK? 

 By W. C. Flood. 



IT has been calculated, we believe, that for the 

 requirements of his everyday conversation, the 

 vocabulary of a well-educated man contains about 

 five thousand words, although one of exceptional 

 genius might employ three times that number, 

 whereas an ordinary person makes use of not more 

 than two or three thousand words, and an uneducated 

 agricultural labourer is possibly content with a few 

 hundreds. The language of some savages is even 

 more meagre in its vocabulary, in fact, with certain 

 tribes language resolves itself almost into its simplest 

 form, and conversation cannot well be carried on in 

 the dark, because signs and gesticulations are with 

 them almost as important as speech itself. 



Bearing in mind that such scanty and imperfect 

 language suffices for the requirements of some men, 

 one would possibly not be too presumptuous in 

 crediting many of the lower animals with the power of 

 speech in a simple or rudimentary form. In fact 

 most of us have pet animals of some kind, and by 

 constant association with them we learn to under- 

 stand with more or less accuracy, the means which 

 they adopt to express their wishes. Most par- 

 ticularly, perhaps, is this the case with dogs, for 

 these animals are the ordinary pets and companions 

 of man, and they have, moreover, the power of 

 emitting a great diversity of distinct and easily 

 distinguishable sounds. 



So far as taking part in a discussion, or even 

 carrying on a simple conversation, a dog cannot 

 talk. In fact, it may be safely asserted that man 

 alone enjoys the gift of speech in the ordinary 

 acceptance of the word. But if we recognise as 

 language the power of expressing certain desires and 

 emotions by means of well-defined and easily-distin- 

 guishable sounds, then the dog has as much right 

 to be credited with the power of speech as man 

 himself. 



The language of a dog, if it may be dignified by 

 such a name, is of course, language in its simplest 

 form— simpler, in fact, than that of even the most 



primitive savage race with which man is acquainted at 

 the present day. There appears to be in the canine 

 tongue no separate words for food, drink, or any- 

 thing else which a dog may want. The latter simply 

 intimates that it wants something, and as a rule it is 

 only the attendant circumstances which enable us to 

 understand what may be required. A whine is 

 frequently, but not always, used for this purpose. 

 When barking is resorted to, the barks are usually 

 single ones. Sometimes, too, a short growl is used. 



Primarily we may place most of the sounds which 

 a dog usually makes under the following six 

 headings : — Whine, howl, growl, bark, yelp, and the 

 squeak or squeal. Some of these, as the bark, may 

 be subdivided into several distinct varieties, and 

 when we also take into consideration the difference 

 caused by intonation, we find that this number is 

 still further increased. 



The tone in which a dog barks or growls is not 

 less important than the bark itself ; but it is by no 

 means so easy for an inexperienced ear to dis- 

 tinguish all the varieties of expression. 



The bark of a dog appears to be generally looked 

 upon as the characteristic noise which this animal 

 makes. Prqbably the most frequent, it is certainly 

 the most noticeable, and is capable of greater 

 variation than either of the other sounds we have 

 named. Thus among the different kinds of barking 

 we may mention as being the most easily distin- 

 guished, are two which for convenience we will name 

 the bark of interrogation, and the bark of warning. 

 The former is a single bark, sometimes preceded by 

 and joined to a kind of growl. It is used when the 

 dog hears, or fancies it hears, some unusual sound, 

 and evidently means " What is that ?" or " Who is 

 there ? " and may be regarded as an equivalent to 

 the challenge of a sentry on duty. Should a dog 

 have no doubt in its mindj however, that something 

 is wrong, as, for instance, when the footsteps of a 

 stranger are heard on the premises, it will give 

 utterance to what we have styled the bark of warning, 

 which consists of several "bow-wow-wows," de- 

 livered furiously in rapid succession. 



Whether the dog addresses itself to its master or 

 to the person at whom it barks is not quite clear, but 

 probably the intention is, while acquainting the 

 former with the fact that something is wrong, at the 

 same time to inform the latter that his presence is 

 known, and that if he misbehaves himself, or 

 possibly, if he does not beat a retreat without loss of 

 time, he may have to answer for some very un- 

 pleasant consequences. Frequently, when one dog 

 hears another barking in this particular way, it will 

 raise its own voice in a similar manner, even 

 though it cannot see or hear the cause of the dis- 

 turbance. 



A form of barking somewhat similar to the fore- 

 going, but nevertheless easily distinguishable from it 

 by the practised ear, or indeed, by most people who 



