The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-07

the yard, opened the box, and took out the bone. which he attacked without any slgn Of doubting his legal right to it's possession. It may be noticed that he Is frequently fed in this yard.
 In this experiment the dog knew too things. He knew how to open the box. Indeed, the sight of the latch was so strongly associated in the dogs mind with the action of lifting it that it is surprising that the usual, almost me chanical, response to sensation did not occur, Had he lifted the latch it would not necessarily have implied that he did 1t with the object of securing the food. He knew that the box contained meat Eager as he was to secure the meat. he did not reason The way to secure the meat is to lift the latch. I have de- scribed the experiment in detail, because all details are as it appears to me. of great importance. It is to be noted that the opening of the box was associa ted In the dogs mind with the appreciation of human being. Great care was taken that no person should be present when the dog found the box. The sight of the box was strongly suggestive to the dogs mind of the action of opening it. With a view to diminishing the urgency of this sensorimotor association, a piece of hot meat with strong brown smell was placed in the box. Its rich scent distract ed his attention from the latch. When the dog was readmitted into the yard later in the morning. he was aware that the Aox was in the yard. and he went straight from person to the box By this time the bone was cold. and it's scent less striking. It is impossible to repeat the experiment upon Peter. because now. when he opens the box, he invariably searches for food inside 1t. But I should be grateful to any of your readers who would repeak this experiment taking great care CD that the opening of the box is not associated in the dogs mind with finding food inside it, and @ that. when the dog finds the box containing food, he is quite alone. l need hardly add that I shall be still more grateful to any one who will suggest to me anoth- CT test of the same kind"
 Anther correspondent asks after read ing of Dr. Hill's experiments if the open ing of a box is not somewhat akin to the exercise of an inventive faculty He says: Teach a man how to operate a complicated machine of which he does not understand the mechanism, and it may be doubted whether he will connect the process of setting 1t in motion with some desire to gain an advantage which Is not obviously attained by doing so.
 am tempted tO describe an OCCurr- ence which reveals in a dog which have at present the possession of two rather rare qualities of mind for a dog. One is the accumulation of brightly colored ob- jects. This dog sleeps on mat in a basket On taking out the mat to clean It. strange collection of articles is gen orally neatly arranged below it; l re- member, for instance, large pieces of red sealing wax attached to strings a comb piece of whalebone, a Brussels sprout, some Jumps of coal showing pyrites a polished dry rh hone, some kindling sticks with resin. etc These objects had not been gnawed. but merely placed un- der the mat as valued possessions.
 Again this dog has keen sense of a joke. Some days ago, a small dog with a loose chain was wandering in tho gar den. Its owner came out and called it My dog caught the chain. dragged the little dog away and awaited events. As soon as the owner approached. the small dog was dragged out of reach and it was not until after ,ong chase that the little dog was captured. These small show. I think, that it is as i'm possible to classify all dogs together as it is to classify human beings: their minds naturally run in very different di- rections, and. just as there are inventive or artistic men, SO dogs may show lean Ings towards special developments of their minds"
 The Vitality of Seeds.
 J. W. T. Duval read q paper before a recent meeting of the Biological Society
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