The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1895-02-14
REASON IN ANIMALS.
A THEORY THAT 1T COULD BE Sue
cESSFUlLY CULTIVATED.

played Human Intelligence.
Instead of tying to learn the speech of
animals, " said gentleman interested in
science recently, there may come time
when what we now consider dumb brutes
may be endowed through the efforts OF
man with an intelligence approzimating
the human intellect. In other words, the
higher order of animals may be taught to
reason and demonstrate their power of
thought In way that would indeed be
marvellous considered In the light of the
laws Of nature as we now have them re-
vealed to us. But we are forced to believe
from the worlds experience in the past
that all things are possible, and that we
have not by any means attained the climax
of the knowledge which we are to obtain
in this life. In regard to the education of
animals am not speaking from theory,
for have but recently had examples of
the great development of animal intelli-
gence which. as starter In q new line of
scientific teaching, is extraordinary. But
recently there was exhibited at one of the
theaters OF the city dog whose exhibit
tion was so remarkable that every person
attributed 1t to trick. A wink of the eye
or some movement of the hand by the
owner signifled to the dog when he came
the owner told me, really did not reason.
His power was developed by the kinder
garten system of instruction and was dis
covered by a small child, who for amuse-
ment was accustomed to have her constant
playfellow pick out numbers and cards
while she was at her kindergarten lesson.
The dog was with the child continually
and soon showed signs Of reasoning and
evidenced an intelligence which would
seem unusual in brute. The dog had
had tho advantage of all the kindergarten
instruction given tho small child and
strangely had made use Of it.
1T had learned by observation Just as a
child does in the kindergarten. 1t is moth
ing surprising either when you observe
how rapidly the mind OF child develops
under such teaching Why, there are
many instances of a child being deaf and
dumb or not knowing the English Ian.
guage, yet making almost as fast progress
in tho kindergarten us the child more for
tunato To person not knowing that
children have reasoning powers an untll-
tored deaf and dumb child would scarcely
show more intelligence than n dog. So
why should wo assert that dog has no
intelligence that can be developed simply
because wo do not know anything about
itf Who knows what results could be OBJ
tanned in the education of dogs If the sys-
tematic teaching that is bestowed upon
children was given to the caninesf Wheth-
er the deg which was exhibited here was
really educated as tho man claimed or not
is immaterial. But that such possibility
exists was proved to me by personal ex-
perience had with dog in the east re-
gently was in small town in jersey
and in walking down tho street one d ay
1 saw an elderly man carrying small
black and tan dog wrapped in a sort of
blanket which had been made especially
for it. approached tho man and ven
tured that bo must think n great deal of
the dog from the care he took of it, "A
great deal, said the old fellow Why, II no
was my son l could not think more of
him. He has actually a human intelli-
gence. l told him had heard of such
cases before, but had always attributed
the show of intelligence to well devised
trick We'll, continued the old man, my
friend, can prove to you that this dog
really does reason. He will do anything
you tell him to, discriminate between OBJ
Jeets and men, and, in fact, show an in
telligenco which will surprise you By
this time three or four men passing by,
hearing tho conversation. became interest
ed and stopped. The owner of the dog
then took little square piece of black
flannel from his pocket and spread 1t upon
the pavement. He then placed the dog
upon 1t and asked ME to toll him to pick out
any one in the crowd by the description 1
should give of him. then spoke to the
dog, Pick out tho man who has the red
mustache and red necktie and wearing the
hight checked trousers
referred to a man in the rear of the
crowd The little dog sat up, and raising
his ears looked all about the crowd. Then
as soon as he spicd the man, he ran to him
and jumped up, putting his fore paws ON
the mans legs l tried this several times
OH different people, and never once did tho
dog make mistake, Then the dog was
asked his age, and by n number of barks
told it He then did some addition and
subtraction then told tho man that l
thought there was some trick about it, so
he said he would convince me fully that
tile dog really reasoned Now, SAID he,
tell him to go to any object you muy SEQ
within two blocks of here and toll him to
point it out by placing his feet upon it
wien he finds it | will go into this store,
out of his sight, So that thnru Will he no
chanee Of my giving signal After tho
nun had retired | noticed "A bicycle lean
ing against post about a block and a
half up the road turned To tho dog and
sad slowly, 60 find "a bicycle up the road,
ana When you come to II put your hind
feet on the back wheel The dog started
ON lazy walk, loohing all about him in
the direction Of tho bicycle, end when he
saw 1t ho broke intn n little trot He then
set his foot on the hind wheel and stood
M this position looking toward us until
shout of appreciation told him ho was cor
rect, whom he got down and ran toward
US as fast as he could. When ho reached
u.s. he jumped up and down. seeming
pleased with his accomplishment OF
course there was no room left for me to
doubt | had to believe that II | ever was
te believe anything After this the dog
printed out an open carriage fram MINI
Der. of vehicles; also drug store and
grocery from block OF misce llaneous
stores His scope Of tricks, il they could
be SO called, seemed unlimited lie WAS
able To do anything that was told him.
TIE man told me his education had been
like u child's At first he could tell but
one ohieet and by degrees no was taught
to know more until OUT Of 81 various ar
ticles placed In "A room he could pick out ,
an" one that would be mentioned 49,
llttsbarg Dispatch,
Utility Vases.
A J.