SHAMMING LAMENESS.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:1 Srn,—Several of your readers have given you instances of horses feigning lameness. To any one who has been accus- tomed to work with sheepdogs in Australia there can be no doubt that they also feign lameness, and that their doing so is the result of a quite complicated process of reasoning. During the summer season out there the dogs working on sheep-runs suffer considerably from hard, prickly grass and other seeds getting in between their toes and irritating, and even piercing, the tender membranes. Sometimes the pain is so severe that the dog will refuse to work, and lying down will gnaw at its toes in the effort to get rid of the seed. But occasionally dogs, like men, are lazy in the summer heat, and when the order comes to them to turn the wing or to go to the bead of the mob of sheep, a few unwilling strides will be followed by a sudden access of limping, and often by a most exaggerated attempt at ,getting rid of the supposed grass-seed causing it. The owner will perhaps be sufficiently deceived to dismount and examine the dog's feet. Then a good cuff on the ears will be the reward of its deceit, and the lameness will dis- appear in an equally sudden access of energy. The processes of reasoning necessary for the dog to decide on its being worth while to sham lameness, and then on the shamming no longer being of any use, need not be detailed. It will be often found by the owner of a really keen dog, upon the examination of its feet at night, that it has been working all day, without flinching, with its pads and toes in such a condition as to have caused it continual pain. Does not the comparison between such a dog and a lazy one tend to show that dogs (and other animals would come under the same category) may possess in varying degrees qualities akin to those of human character which we call perseverance and a sense of duty P Personally, I think the possession by animals of reasoning-power has been proved over and over again; but the possibility of their possessing also the power of moral perception is coming into the region of sane debate.—I am,
Sir, &c., THOMAS HEPBURN. 39 Shrub End Road, Colchester.
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