Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/828

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806
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

countable fear, this cringing and trembling like a Chinese culprit before his executioner. (See Figs. 15, 16, and 17.[1])

Some may contend that the dogs were not comparable in the first place. This, of course, is possible, but I do not feel that in this respect the experiment could have been improved upon. The

Fig. 15.—Bum, November, 1895.

presumption is, in fact, very strong against any such interpretation of the facts.

I can conceive of no other interpretation than the evident one, viz., that we have to do here with one of the physiological causes


  1. For want of space we are obliged to omit the two figures with which it was intended these should be compared. They represent Nig and Topsy sidewise, standing naturally, and with no signs of fear. A word may not be amiss at just this point as to my method of obtaining the photographs. Mr. C. C. Stewart manipulated the camera, while I controlled the dogs, in procuring the negatives for Figs. (5 and 8. All the rest I took myself, most of them alone, a few with Mrs. Hodge's help. It was recognized from the first that all the dogs must be treated exactly alike, and the rule was laid down at the beginning that, no matter how badly they behaved, no spatting, not even a sharp word, should be indulged in while they were on the photographing stand. The whole procedure was given the character of a frolic, in which, when they "sat still and looked pretty," bits of meat or biscuit were given to all alike, and no punishment or reproof was administered on any account. I may have failed unconsciously, but, if I did, it was with the irrepressibles, Topsy and Nig, and not with Tipsy or Bum. Furthermore, nothing of the nature of "intoxication effect" was possible in any of the photographs. As stated above, the dogs were given their alcohol at evening, and then not in doses sufficient to produce intoxication, and the pictures were taken about noon. And, further, for several of the pictures, notably 6, 8, 14, and 15), alcohol was purposely omitted the night before.