CONSCIOUS AUTOMATA.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—Dr. Walter F. Atlee writes to the editor of the Philadelphia Medical Times :—
"In a letter recently received from Lancaster, where my father resides, it is said A queer thing occurred just now. Father was in the office, and heard a dog yelping outside the door ; he paid no atten- tion until a second and louder yelp was heard, when he opened it, and found a little brown dog standing on the step upon three legs. He brought him in, and on examining the fourth leg, found a pin sticking in it. He drew out the pin, and the dog ran away again.' The office of my father, Dr. Atlee, is not directly on the street, but stands back, having in front of it some six feet of stone wall with a gate. I will add, that it has not been possible to discover anything more about this dog.
"This story reminds me of something similar that occurred to me while studying medicine in this same office nearly thirty years ago. A man, named Cosgrove, the keeper of a low tavern near the railroad station, had his arm broken, and came many times to the office to have the dressings arranged. He was always accompanied by a large, most ferocious-looking bull-dog, that watched me most attentively, and most unpleasantly to me, while bandaging his master's arm. A few weeks after Cosgrove's case was discharged, I heard a noise at the office-door, as if some animal was pawing it, and on opening it, saw there this huge bull-dog, accompanied hy'another dog that held up one of its front lege, evidently broken.. They entered the office. I cut several pieces of wood, and fastened them firmly to the leg with adhesive plaster, after straightening the limb. They left immediately. The dog that came with Cosgrove's dog I never saw before nor since."
Do not these stories adequately show that the dogs reasoned and drew new inferences from a new experience ?—I am, Sir, &c., B.
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