PSYCHICAL ANTECEDENT OF SCIENCE 175

needed pressing down and treading round to make a com-

fortable bed.

Mr. Romanes cites* an amusing tale from a Miss Bramston

about a certain archiepiscopal collie dog which had acquired

a habit of hunting imaginary pigs every evening directly

after family prayers. The fact is put forward as an import-

ant instance of something beyond mere animal capacity

as commonly understood ; but in truth the fact is so easily

explicable by a mere association of sensations, that it may

well be cited as a type for other instances more or less

similar but not so easily explicable. It appears the animal

had formerly been accustomed to be sent to chase real

pigs out of a field, and so the sound of the word " pigs "

and the pleasurable action of running about after them had

become associated in the dog's imagination. It had been

the custom for Miss Benson to open the door for the collie

after dinner in the evening and say " Pigs ! " when it very

naturally ran out and ran about according to its previously

acquired habit. Soon this exercise became in its turn a

matter of habit, and the phenomena attending the termina-

tion of dinner or, later, of family prayers, very naturally

gave rise in the collie to an expectant feeling (such as

may arise without consciousness in ourselves f) of the door

being opened for the accustomed pleasurable excitement.

If the door was not opened, the habit being now well

established, the expectant feeling, growing more and more

vivid with delay, could hardly fail to elicit barks, tail-wagg-

ings, and movements towards the exceptionally unopened

door, and the accumulating excitement might very well

lead it at last to run out and bark without waiting for

the utterance of the word " pigs " ; nor is it in the least

surprising to learn that the phenomena attending family

prayers at Miss Bramston's house should arouse in the

* Op. at., p. 56. t See ante, p. 152.

needed pressing down and treading round to make a com-

fortable bed.

Mr. Romanes cites* an amusing tale from a Miss Bramston

about a certain archiepiscopal collie dog which had acquired

a habit of hunting imaginary pigs every evening directly

after family prayers. The fact is put forward as an import-

ant instance of something beyond mere animal capacity

as commonly understood ; but in truth the fact is so easily

explicable by a mere association of sensations, that it may

well be cited as a type for other instances more or less

similar but not so easily explicable. It appears the animal

had formerly been accustomed to be sent to chase real

pigs out of a field, and so the sound of the word " pigs "

and the pleasurable action of running about after them had

become associated in the dog's imagination. It had been

the custom for Miss Benson to open the door for the collie

after dinner in the evening and say " Pigs ! " when it very

naturally ran out and ran about according to its previously

acquired habit. Soon this exercise became in its turn a

matter of habit, and the phenomena attending the termina-

tion of dinner or, later, of family prayers, very naturally

gave rise in the collie to an expectant feeling (such as

may arise without consciousness in ourselves f) of the door

being opened for the accustomed pleasurable excitement.

If the door was not opened, the habit being now well

established, the expectant feeling, growing more and more

vivid with delay, could hardly fail to elicit barks, tail-wagg-

ings, and movements towards the exceptionally unopened

door, and the accumulating excitement might very well

lead it at last to run out and bark without waiting for

the utterance of the word " pigs " ; nor is it in the least

surprising to learn that the phenomena attending family

prayers at Miss Bramston's house should arouse in the

* Op. at., p. 56. t See ante, p. 152.