THE SCIENTIFIC PIG.

Western Star, 27 January 1922, Page 3

THE SCIENTIFIC PIG.

[London 'Daily

Lovers of animals are wont to dispute as to which species is most intelligent. w The dog, the horse, the cat, to say nothing of a hundred less popular pets, all have their champions. Into this controversy we would not intrude, for experience has shown that to take sides when the virutes of the dog are argued against the charms of the cat is as dangerous as coming into a matrimonial dispute. It. is inevitable that you will say the wrong thing, it is certain that you will make enemies on both sides. But to the noble company of animalworshippers we wish to recoimmendi a new idol. Why should the pig lack love? We are aware, that the trainers of performing animals have from time to time produced learned swine. The poet Herrick occupied the leisure of a rural incumbency by teaching hie pig to drink out of a tankard. But it is too true .'that the pig, as pig, ,has gone unhonouredl and unsung. Literature brands him. as the incarnation of brutal folly, and will only approve him when he is roast. Science comes to the rescue. The men of science working in the Agricultural School at Cambridge vindicate his fame. The pig, we are' assured, is the only creature which has been found to posess a- scientific mind. The pig alone is capable o-i; understanding the purposes and the methods of the man of science.

Let us draw no profane conclusions. What the Agricultural School sought was to discover- the value of different kinds of food. You might have thought that a pig w-as not the right worker to choose for such research. His tastes are too catholic. But the is thalt the other animals were too stupid. The plan was that an animal, having been fed, or alternatively not having been fed, should be placed in an apartment known as the calorimeter, which records the rise and fall of the inmiates' temperature. The other animals would not play the game. They fussed and fretted! and "took useless exercise," to the derangement of the apparatus. But a pig was tried, and a different atmosphere was created. The creature goes to the calorimeter after meals with scientific enthusiasm', and when there has been no meal he still accepts .the calorimeter "with cheerful equanimity." Even as the geese saved! Rome, so the pig is to save the experiment, and the rest of the animal creation mlust hide their diminished heads. But we own to a certain, uneasiuess. One swallow does not make a summer, and one pig does not make a principle. ( We can assure the men of science audi their calorimeter that the effects, of food upon temperature are not always and for everyone the same. Some of us feel cold in the digestive operation, some warm. And wi* would rather not have it assumed that our sensations after dinner are those of a pig.