Note T — Chapter V · EXPLANATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS

Professor Shaler[24], a well-known American savant, mentions a three-year old pig belonging to a Virginian farmer, that was able to read and had some understanding of language. From numerals which were written upon cards and spread out before it, this pig could compose dates. It could also select from among certain cards one upon which was written a given name, asked for by the master. Supposedly no signs of any kind were given. (Shaler thought to exclude effectively the sense of smell, which is so highly developed in the pig, in that he, Shaler, himself smelled at the cards, since he also "possessed an acute olfactory sense!") Since we are told that the farmer in question made a business of supplying trained pigs for exhibition purposes, the case appears suspicious. We hear of a pig exhibited in London, that was able to read and spell, and could also tell the time by the watch[25]. We cannot tell, however, whether the two pigs, which beyond a doubt were mechanically trained to respond to signals, are identical or not.