The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-03
A Dogs Perceptions.

 tial power by which a likeness as well as a reflection is cognized is made plain by what have witnessed the dog (not a show dog), Dodgerfield by name, of my friend the actor, MT. w. E. Dal- ton, do. Pedestalled pieces of tin are placed in disorder on the floor, on which are painted the Arabic figures 1, 2, 8, 4. Name any one of these figures and Dodgerfield will bring to you the piece of tin on which it is painted. This proves beyond question, if it needs any proof-and I find that everything in animal psychology has to be proven that Dodgerfield has one of the facul- ties essential to the perception of a likeness, the faculty of form. Without it, it would be utterly impossible for him to distinguish one figure from an- other by sight, and have taken pains to prove that he does not distinguish the tins upon which they are painted by scent. The other faculty necessary to distinguish a colored likeness is of course that of color. That Dodgerfield has that is proven in this way: Four handkerchiefs-one white, one red, one orange, and one green-are laid in dis order on the floor; you ask for the one you want, naming the color, and Dod- gerf1eld will bring it to you. Here again can assure the reader the dis tinguishment is not through scent. Now you have a beefsteak painted by a competent, realistic artist. Show it to your dog. See how quickly his atten- tion is attracted. He may not sink his teeth into the picture but this will not be because he does not perceive it's form and colors, but because the mis- take made by his eyes is corrected by his nose If you could make the pie ture smell precisely as beefsteak, you would thoroughly fool the dog, as thor oughly as I have seen men fooled by a painted greenback
 Uuder date of March 27, MT. Dalton says: "Dodgerfield has developed a fondness for sleeping on our bed in preference to his own. His bed is a small cotton pad in a basket He has settled himself upon our bed every night after the performance of late, and it has required quite command ing tone to induce him to go to his own | when the time comes for us to go to ours Last Thursday the climax came, and we surmise that he filled some of the dozng moments through the day l in devising some way of attaining the desired bed; for almost immediately upon our returning from the theater he, of his own free will and direction. dragged his pad from his basket, which was in a closet then across fourteen | foot room to our bed, and jumped upon ! it, tugging the pad after him. Then. spreading it out the best he could, he lay down upon it and went to sleep"
 That Dodgerfield reasoned in this &C., | ton, there can be no doubt. l have al- ready shown that he has two other fac ulties necessary to the perception of a portrait-that of form and that of color. That he has the fourth--that of the power of the perception of the individ- ual within the person-is so apparent l that MT. Dalton thinks him capable ot receiving impressions, even thoughts, through telepathy..
 Now, were MT. Dalton or any one else to tell me that Dodgerfield had | KnOWn d pOftTditt | Wouiu ioe eiiiii. s> statement wild. But such thing neither MT Dalton nor anybody else
 has told me with relation to Dodger- field It has been told me, however l with relation to another dog-Tiger by
 name-owned by the Rev Peter Claude
 Creveling of Cornwall, N. Y. MT
 Creveling writes me under date of Jan
 uary 20:
 My wife does crayon work. Last
 week she had on her board two DOT traits, each striking likeness ct lts
 subject-one of myself, the other Of
 friend unknown to Tiger. When Mrs
 Creveling had about finished her work
 and after my portrait had been placed
 in frame and stood on an easel-tht
 other being very near it-Tiger was
 admitted to the room. (You vii