[Pg 252] There is also a very marked difference in the tongues of the two animals. The tongue of the cat is rough, with small points directed backwards. These points are of great help in licking the flesh from bones; and they also serve as a comb when the cat—which is fastidious about the cleanliness of its fur—“washes” itself. The tongue of the dog is smooth and moist. The inherited habits of the cat and dog.—Very obvious differences are also to be seen in the habits of the two animals, and these would be somewhat difficult to explain if we confined our attention to the domesticated animals only, which live under artificial conditions. When, however, we consider the wild relatives of the cat and dog, many of the differences become full of significance. The wild animals of the cat family, almost without exception, are either solitary or live in pairs; whereas the wild dogs (wolves, jackals, etc.) live in packs. The habits which these respective methods of life entailed have become so firmly implanted in the nature of the race that even now, after thousands of generations of domestication, they may be traced. Such inherited habits, which are not dependent upon, or may be at variance with, present conditions of life, are called instincts. We will first see how the ancestral custom of living in organised packs has left its impress upon the instincts of the domesticated dog. The first essential to the success of any community of animals—whether these are bees or rooks, wolves or men—is that all the creatures composing it shall conform to certain rules, which have for their object the good of the community and not merely that of the individual. Acts which promote the wellbeing of the society as a whole are good, and are directly or indirectly rewarded. Acts which tend to injure the society as such are bad, and inevitably bring punishment either to the [Pg 253] individual offender or, what is worse, to his pack. A distinction between right and wrong is thus established which would be impossible to any animal living so solitary a life that its acts affected only itself. In this manner were aroused the social instinct, the love of praise and the dread of shame, the lifelong attachment to early friends, and almost all the other qualities which have so endeared the dog to mankind; because these qualities resulted naturally from the ancestral pack-life. Left to itself, the dog loses its nerve, for it is by nature unfitted for a solitary life. What more woe-begone animal is ever seen than a lost dog?