478 
EDUCABILITY OF ANIMALS. 
question of possibility may, indeed, be considered as set at rest 
by the recent exhibition of the educated dogs in London — animals 
that could play at dominoes and chess, and even indicate when 
their adversaries made false moves. These creatures were visited 
and 'played with by thousands, and we never have heard that a 
deception of any kind as to the reality of their acquired powers 
was detected. 
Laying aside such extraordinary examples as these, the ordi- 
nary training conferred on horses, dogs, and other domesticated 
animals, seems to be sufficient to establish the general fact of 
animal educability. We have no more forcible illustrations of 
the principle than in the uses which are now made of certain of 
the canine tribe in rural sports. The pointer, setter, springing 
spaniel, and all that class of dogs, are understood to be descended 
from one stock, the Spanish spaniel, with a slight crossing from 
the fox-hound, for the sake of improving the speed. The ori- 
ginal animal may be considered as a record of the original powers, 
to which every thing else must be regarded as an addition made 
by human training. Jtfow, the original animal is only gifted by 
nature with a fine scent for game, and a disposition to make a 
momentary pause on seeing it, for the purpose of springing upon 
it*. Man has converted this inclination to a temporary pause 
into a habit of making a full stop ; and the animal, instead of 
gratifying his destructive tendency by flying upon the game, has 
been trained to be contented with witnessing a vicarious execu- 
tion by the gun of his master. 
It is a mistake to suppose that only the spaniel tribe is capable 
of serving sportsmen in the capacity of pointers and setters. 
There are other classes of dogs which perseverance would enable, 
to a certain extent, to act in the same way. Gervase Markham, 
who wrote on sports in the sixteenth century, speaks of having 
seen dogs of the bastard tumbler kind adapted to act as setters, 
though not so well as those of the spaniel kind. Mr. Blaine is 
of opinion that this power can be cultivated in most dogsf. It 
has even been elicited in another and very different class of ani- 
mals — the hog. Some years ago, Mr. Toomer, gamekeeper to Sir 
Henry Mildmay, bethought him of teaching a pig to act as a 
pointer, having been struck by the scenting powers of the animal 
in its search for palatable roots under ground. He began by 
allowing a young female pig to accompany his pointers in their 
breaking lessons to the field. Within a fortnight, to his own sur- 
prise, she was able to hunt and point partridges and rabbits. 
* Thoughts and Recollections, by one of the Last Century. London • 
Murray. 1825. 
f Encyclopedia of Rural Sports, 792. 
