Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-09-02
HOW ANIMALS COUNT.
Processes of Dogs, Cats and
Experiments Showing the Numarica2
Horses.

Horses.
Cleveland Leader: A Russian nbv
sician has been making some curions
experiments to find out how far ami.
mails can count.
He declares that the crow can copnt
up to ten, and is thereby superior in
arithmetic to certain PolyneSian tribes
Of men who cannot get beyond five or
six.
The doctor had dog which was ac.
customed to bury the bones it found
each one in n seperate place in the
garden. One day, wishing to test the
animals power of counting, the master
gave it no less than twenty-six bones
which We're all buried one after anotb-
er in special hiding places. The next
day the dog was given up the cd ones.
Without hesitation he uncovered ten
and then came to a stop
After whining and running about as
if in a state Of great perplexity a new
idea seemed to enter the canine brain.
and again the dog began to dig up the
hidden bones, and this time he added
nine TO the total before his memory
again failed him.
Then there was a second period Of
whining perplexity, after which the
seven remaining bones were found with
the same difficulty.
The doctor concluded from this that
twenty-siX was too large a number for
the dog to take in all at once. and that
he had been obliged to remember the
bones, rs it were. in three shorter ser
les
The cat, it would seem, is even less
Of an arthmedcan than the dog, not
being able to count rs far as ten.
Before giving his cat IT'S regular niroe
Of meat the doctor would put it under
the animals nose, and then withdraw
1t five times in succession, and IL was
only the sixth time that he would give
the cat the mOrsel This number was
repeated every day until the cat grew
perfectly accustomed to waiting five
times, but would spring forward Of its
own accord at the sixth presentation
Having thus demonstrated that pussy
was able to remember up to six the
doctor tried to seven, but without sue
cess. As soon as he attempted to per
form the experiment with higher num-
berS the cat became confused and
would jump forward for the meat at
the wrong time. The number six there
fore would seem to be the limit Of the
clt'S mower Of cOl1nfinp
Not less interesting were similar ey-
PerfmentS with horses. In the village
of PekOe the doctor found a peasants
horse which was used for blowing
and which had achived the habit Of
counting the burrows and stepping for
rest regularly at the twentieth, So
confident was the plowman of the &C
curacy of his horses calculation that at
the end of the day he used to estimate
the amount of work done. not by count
ing the burrows himself but by simply
remembering the number of times bis
horse had stopped to rest.
In another village the doctor found
a horse which was able TO count the
mile-pOSts along the way. ana when
had been trained by his master TO stop
for feed whenever they had covered
twenty-five versts one day they tried
the horse over where three false mile
posts had been put up in between the
real ones. and sure enough the horse
deceived by this trick. stopped for ms
oats ut the end Of twenty-five NeIsis
instead Of going the usual twenty-five
The same horse was accustomed g
being fed every day at the stroke OF
noon. The Doctor observed that When
ever the clock struck any hour the
horse would stop and prick up his ears
as If counting If he heard twelve Pr
would trot off contentedly to he leu
but if there were fewer stokes than
twelve he would 90 on working re-
signedly.
The experiment wus made Of strhlh-
twelve strokes at the wrong tlhs'
whereupon the horse started for llis
oats IN spite Of the fact that ne nau
been fed only an hour before. ms
showed that little knowledge may Y
a bad thing for horses as wen as men.