Year: 1878

ENTERTAINING DOG STORIES.


The Sense Of the Mysterious in Brutes-Re'
suits Of Nnturalist's Experiments.


Mr.. George J. Romanes, the English
naturalist, writing to Nature about Her.
bert Spencer's treatment of the subject OF
Fstichism in Animals," tells some en-
tertaining stories about experiments
made by himself with his pets.


II was led," he says, "to make the
experiments by reading the instance
given in the Descent Of Man of the
large dog which Mr.. Darwin observed to
bark at parasol as it was moved along
the lawn by the wind-so presenting the
appearance of animation. The dog on
which I experimental was Skye terrier
"a remarkably intelligent animal, whose
psychological faculties have already
formed the subject of several communi-
cations to this and other periodicals. as
all my experiments yielded the same re-
suits I will only mention one. The ter
rier in question, like many other dogs.
used to play with dry bones by tossing
them in the air, throwing them to dis
tance, and generally giving them the ap.
pearance of animation, in order to give
himself the ideal pleasure Of worrying
them. On one occasion, therefore, !
tied long and fine thread to dry bone
and gave him the latter to play with.
After he had tossed it about for a short
time I took an opportunity, when it had
fallen at distance from him and while
he was following itup, of gently drawing
it away from him by means Of the long
and invisible thread. Instantly his
whole demeanor changed. The bone
which he had previously pretended to be
alive now began to look as if it really
were alive, and his astonishment knew
no bounds. He first approached it with
nervous caution, as Mr.. Spencer de-
scribes, but as the slow receding motion
continued, and he became quite certain
that the movement could not be account
ed for by any residum of the force which
he had himself communicated, his as
tonishment developed into dread, and he
ran to conceal himself under some arti.
cles of furniture, there to behold at q
distance the 'uncanny' spectacle Of a
dry bone coming to life.


"Another experiment proved that the
sense of the mysterious was In this ami
NAL sufficiently strong OF itself to &C.
count for his behavior. Taking him into
carpeted room I blew soap bubble,
and by means of ftful draught made
it intermittingly glide along the floor.
He became at once intensely interested,
but seemed unable to decide whether or
not the filmy object was alive. At first
he was very cautious and followed it
only at distance, but as I encouraged
him to examine the bubble more closely,
he approached it with ears erect and tail
down, evidently with much misgiving {;
and the moment it happened to move he
again retreated. After time, however,
during which I always kept at least one
bubble On the carpet, he began to gain
more courage, and the scientific spirit
overcoming his sense of the mysterious,
he eventually became bold enough slowly
to approach one of the bubbles and ner-
vously to touch it with his paw. The
bubble, of course, Immediately vanished;
and I certainly never saw astonishment
more strongly depicted. On then blow
ing another bubble could not persuade
him to approach it for good while !;
but at last he came and carefully extend
ed his paw as before with the same re-
suit. But after this second trial nothing
would induce him again to approach q
bubble, and on pressing him he ran out
of the room, which no coaxing would
persuade him to re-enter.


"One other example will suffice to
show how strongly developed was the
sense of the mysterious in this animal.
When alone with him in room I once
purposely tried the effect on him OF
making series of horrible g1imaces.
At first he thought I was only making
fun; but as I .persistently disregarded
his caresses and whining, while I con-
tinued unnaturally to distort my fea-
lures, he became alarmed and skunk
away under some furniture, shivering
like frightened child. he remained in
this condition till some other member OF
the family happened to enter the room,
when he emelg ged from his hiding place In
great Joy at seeing me again in my right
mind. In this experiment, OF course, l
refrained from making any sounds or
gesticulations, lest he might think I was
angry. His actions, therefore, can only
be explained by his Mortified surprise at
my apparently irrational behavior-that
is, by the violation of his ideas OF uni
formity in matters psychological. 1t
must be added, however, that l have
tried the same experiment on less intelli-
gent and less sensible terriers with no
other effect than causing them to bark
at me.


"I will only add that I believe the
sense of the mysterious to be the cause
of the dread which many animals show
of thunder. I am led to think this be-
cause I once had setter which never
heard thunder till he was eig ghteen
months old, and on then first hearing it
I thought he was about to die OF fright,
as I have seen other animals do under
various circumstances. And 80 strong
was the impression which his extreme
terror left behind that whenever after
ward he heard the boom of distant artil'
lery practice, mistaking it for thunder,
he became pitiable object to look at,
and, if out shooting, would Immediately
bolt bcme-or, if at great distance
from home, would endeavor to bury
himself. After having heard real thun'
der on two or three subsequent occa'
sions, his dread OF the distant cannons
became greater than ever, so that even
tually, though he keenly enjoyed sport
nothing would induce him to leave his
kennel, lest the practice might begir
when he was distance from home
But the keeper, who had large expert
ence in the training of dogs, assured MI
that if allowed this one to be taken t.
the battery, in order that he might learl
the true cause of the thunder-like noise
he would again become serviceable in tn
field. The animal, however, died befor
the experiment was made"


Dancing to the H0wling Winds.


The st. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer.P Pres
has this statement Frank Plumme
has again been heard from in connec
ton with another and recent very peril