The subject of the intellectual and moral qualities of the inferior
animals is one highly interesting and somewhat misunderstood--urged
perhaps to a ridiculous extent by some persons, yet altogether neglected
by others who have no feeling for any but themselves.
Anatomists have compared the relative bulk of the brain in different
animals, and the result is not a little interesting. In man the weight
of the brain amounts on the average to 1-30th part of the body. In the
Newfoundland dog it does not amount to 1-60th part, or to 1-100th part
in the poodle and barbet, and not to more than 1-300th part in the
ferocious and stupid bull-dog.
When the brain is cut, it is found to be composed of two substances,
essentially different in construction and function--the cortical and the
medullary. The first is small in quantity, and principally concerned in
the food and reproduction of the animal, and the cineritious in a great
measure the register of the mind. Brute strength seems to be the
character of the former, and superior intelligence of the latter. There
is, comparing bulk with bulk, less of the medullary substance in the
horse than in the ox--and in the dog than in the horse--and they are
characterized as the sluggish ox, the intelligent horse, and the
intellectual and companionable dog.
From the medullary substance proceed certain cords or prolongations,
termed 'nerves', by which the animal is enabled to receive impressions
from surrounding objects and to connect himself with them, and also to
possess many pleasurable or painful sensations. One of them is spread
over the membrane of the nose, and gives the sense of smell; another
expands on the back of the eye, and the faculty of sight is gained; a
third goes to the internal structure of the ear and the animal is
conscious of sound. Other nerves, proceeding to different parts, give
the faculty of motion, while an equally important one bestows the power
of feeling. One division, springing from a prolongation of the brain,
and yet within the skull, wanders to different parts of the frame, for
important purposes connected with respiration or breathing. The act of
breathing is essential to life, and were it to cease, the animal would
die.
There are other nerves--the sympathetic--so called from their union and
sympathy with all the others, and identified with life itself. They
proceed from a small ganglion or enlargement in the upper part of the
neck, or from a collection of minute ganglia within the abdomen. They go
to the heart, and it beats; and to the stomach, and it digests. They
form a net-work round each vessel, and the frame is nourished and built
up. They are destitute of sensation, and they are perfectly beyond the
control of the will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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