ANALYSING DOG TALK.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1486, 8 July 1912, Page 2

ANALYSING DOG TALK.

A SCIENTIST AVITH A PHONOGRAPH. '[ho talking dog of ono of the Kaiser's game wardens has been a popular wonder in . Germany for soino time. Ho could 6<iv yes and"no, givo his name when asked, mid'repeat a number of other words nppiopriatsiy. The truth of "Don's" human vocalisntion was altented by dozens of witnesses, among them not a few persons deserving tho label of scientists. Hon has in Ihe past made popular copy for the newspapers, in splendid quantities. But not long ago ho encountered a ivnl scientist, and now his reductive (lays from a lilorarv point of view, at least, are over. Oscar Pfungst, of the University of Berlin, who exposed "Clever Hans," the great German equine arithmetician, not long ago, devoted a few hours to a visit with Don, taking a recording phonograph with him. Since that call Don has been in eclipse in the scientific world at any rale. What the Herr Doctor found was this: Tho dog makes noises in rcspomo to questions as any do?, will. Th««o noises are interpreted by the hearers (by some o? them, that is), a 5 artieulnte answers lo the questions. They are,'fit a matter of fact, and lo the dog, nothing but lioi'es. As talked back by Ihe phonoeinpli. they might have been Choctaw, for all the meaning they conveyed lo Ihe nninslrnclcd henre-.

The wonder was, therefore, simply the result of pußgestion. The spectator knowing what the dog was expected to say. heard the expected word. The case was exnctlv similar to that of (lie listener who heirs the whipnoorwill «ny "Whip-ivor-Will." or the Katydid declare that "Kalv-did or "didn't."' In (he Whipnnnrwill ease, as Mr. IT. 11. .Tnhnsvui of .lulms Hopkins (who describes Mr. Pfungst's exposure of Don) explains, the noise is really .far more like "puf-ah-rih" than whip-noor-will, but the listener has no trouble in hearing the expected phrase.' Thus another animal savant is dipcredited, and it begins to look n.s if there renlly were a rather sharp limit to animal intelligence. Until somomo can educate his goose or pig or horse, or dog so that it can pass an elementary examination in humnn intelligence, (lie old-fashioned psychologists avo likely to slick to (heir sharp dividing line between homo sapiens and* (ho_ remainder of the animal world.—New York "Post."