i88i.] 
A Defence of the Dog. 
95 
His attachment to man’s service marks an era of supreme 
importance to the anthropologist. Cuvier goes so far as to 
say “ the dog is the most complete, the most singular, and 
the most useful conquest ever made by man,” and, while it 
is very difficult to compare it exactly with so noble a rival as 
the horse, one is certainly bound to admit that it performs a 
greater variety of services to, and is almost invariably more 
of an intimate with man. In this reference how completely 
the strong points of the dog supplement the weak of the 
primitive or savage man ! As to the senses, the sight, taste, 
touch, and even hearing of man might have been fully on 
a par with those of his coadjutor, but his scent must always 
have been (regarding him as a frugivorous quadruman) 
vastly inferior ; the dog having probably the most discrimi- 
nating, if not the actually keenest, olfaCtory sense of any 
living creature. Nor is it likely that biped man ever pos- 
sessed the splendid turn of speed which dogs of the hound 
kind can command ; still less has he the formidable prehensile 
apparatus furnished by a dog’s teeth and jaws. Thus, man 
could hardly have been a hunter before his fortunate alliance 
with the dog — at least his success must have been very 
indifferent. Besides, he would be so much more liable to 
destruction himself by the more formidable beasts of prey, 
of whose approach his defective organs of smell would not 
timeously apprise him. Of the beginning of this most 
effective defensive and offensive alliance we have no record, 
as we have conclusive signs of its existence far back in 
prehistoric time, a faCt which of itself should be sufficient 
to render the animal an objeCt of permanent interest, if not 
of respeCt and regard, with the man of science. We constantly 
hear protests from naturalists against the destruction of rare 
animals, whether birds or beasts, even when they are wholly 
predatory ; much more must we protest against the bare idea 
oi the extermination of the dog. At least let us preserve 
h m until he has been exhausted as a subject of study. Now, 
as it happens that investigators like Herbert Spencer and 
Dr. Bastian have only initiated that study on the basis of 
combined physiologic and psychologic faCts, it follows that 
upon that score alone the friend of man ought to have a 
long lease of existence. Anyone wishing to be made aware 
how pregnant and interesting this subject is, should read 
the admirable summary of it by Mr. Grant Allen in the 
Gentleman’s Magazine for September, wherein he fits together 
existing knowledge of the matter, supplementing it with 
his own careful and acute observations. And, perhaps, here 
I may be allowed, without launching upon the infinite sea 
