Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-04-18
A Canine Mind-Reader,

A very pretty illustration OF that un-
conscious suggestion upon which the
successes of mind-reading," so called,
have been based, is furnished by the
performances of a clever dog belonging
to the well known spectroscopist and
astronomer, DR.. Huggins. This dog,
mastiff of noble proportions, to whom
had been given the name of Kepler,
possessed many rare gifts, which had
secured for him the admiration and re-
gard of a large number of scientific ac-
qualntances; and among these was one
which he was always ready to exercise
for the entertainment of visitors. At
the close of luncheon or dinner, says a
writer in the Edinburgh ReUielO, Kepler
used to march gravely and sedately in
to the room, and set himself down at
his masters feet. DR.. Higgins then
propounded to him series of arith-
metical questions, which the dog in
variably solved without a mistake.
Square roots were extracted off-hand
with the utmost readiness and prompt
ness. If asked what was the square
root of 9, Kepler replied by three barks,
or, if the question were the square root
of 16, by 4. Then various questions
followed, in which more complicated
processes were nvolved-such, for in
stance, as " add to 8, divide the sum
by 3, and multiply by 2" To such a
question as that Kepler gave more con-
sideration, and sometimes hesitated in
making up his mind as to where his
barks ought finally to stop. Still, in
the end, his decision was always right
The reward for each correct answer
was piece of cake, which was held
before him during the exercise; but un-
til the solution was arrived at Kepler
never moved his eye from his master s
face.
The instant the last bark was given
he transferred his attention to the cake.
DR.. Huggins was perfectly unconscious
of suggesting the proper answer to the
dog, but it is beyond all question that
he did so. The wonderful fact is that
Kepler had acquired the habit of read
ing in his masters eye or countenance
some indication that was not known to
Dr. Huggins himself. The case was
one of the class which is distinguished
by psychologists as that of expectant at
tention.
DIR. Higgins was himself engaged in
working out mentally the various stages
of his arithmetical processes as he pro-
pounded the numbers to Kepler, and
being, therefore, aware of what the an
swer should be, expected the dog to
cease barking when that number was
reached, and that expectation suggested
to his own brain the unconscious signal
which was caught by the quick eye of
the dog.
The instance is strictly analogous to
the well known case in which button,
suspended from thread and held by a
finger near to the rim of glass, strikes
the hour of the day as it swings, and
then stops-that is, provided the per-
son who holds the button himself knows
the hour! The explanation of this oc-
currence is that the hand which holds
the button trembles in consequence of
its constrained position, and in that
way sets the button swinging, and as
the attention of the experimenter is
fixed upon the oscillation, in the ex-
pectation that definite number of
strokes upon the glass will occur, his
own Erain-convolutions take. care that
the movements of the tingershall be-
accordance with that expectation.
The mathematical training of poor
Kepler has, unfortunately, come to an
untimely end. The interesting arith-
metician died of an attack of typhus
fever, to the great sorrow of his large
circle of friends, at the beginning of
last year, and he now sleeps under the
shadow of the telescopes at Tulse Hill.
The memory of his high attainments
and of the distinguished success with
which he upheld the reputation of his
name, however, remains.