Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/827

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THE PHYSIOLOGY OF ALCOHOL.
805

function, the psychic-volitional side of life, we are at once met by the difficulty of lacking terms and measures with which to express in verbal descriptions but a small fraction of the truth.

This has been my reason for supplementing descriptions with as many photographs as possible. And if the reader will study closely the expression of each face through the whole series, especially if he be somewhat familiar with dogs' faces, he will get the best idea that I am able to give by any expression within my power of the difference between the alcoholic and normal dogs in just this important respect, the vigor, the "life," the "go" that is in them. Look at the faces in Figs. 6, 8, and 14, and in all the rest, and come to any conclusion you can or wish. It will not be possible for me to say anything which shall change it.

It was not until alcohol had been given for nearly two months, early in July, that it became quite noticeable that Tipsy and Bum were a little quieter than the others. This became gradually more marked. By September they were rather often caught napping in the shade, while Topsy and Nig were playing actively. They had developed also a cringing, trembling timidity, for which

Bum. Tipsy. Nig. Topsy II.
Fig. 14.—October, 1896.

nothing either in my treatment of them or in their relations to the other dogs could possibly account. Whipping was most carefully avoided from the first, a spat from the open hand being my limit of severity. If a switch was used, it was to strike the ground or the fence and not the dog. Practically they have received nothing but assuring caresses at my hand, and still this unac-