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The learned pig was a pig taught to respond to commands in such a way that it appeared to be able to answer questions by picking up cards in its mouth. By choosing cards it answered arithmetical problems and spelled out words. The "learned pig" caused a sensation in London during the 1780s. It became a common object of satire, illustrated in caricatures and referred to in literature. The original "learned pig" was followed by other trained pigs, which subsequently became a feature of fairs and other public attractions in Europe and America during the 19th century. In the words of G.E. Bentley, "They served as subjects for cartoons by Rowlandson and moral essays in children's books and savage doggerel by Blake, and they illustrated the manners of the English in works by Joseph Strutt and Robert Southey and Thomas Hood. These freaks of learning clearly exercised a fascination among the literary geniuses of the age as they did among the swinish multitude."〔G.E. Bentley, "The Freaks of Learning", ''Colby Quarterly'', Vol. 18, Iss. 2, 1982, Art. 3, pp.88-104.〕 ==The original pig== The original Learned Pig was trained by a Scotsman Samuel Bisset, who ran a travelling novelty show. The idea of an "intellectual" animal was not new. A similar attraction known as "Marocco the thinking horse" (c.1586–c.1606) had been exhibited over a century earlier; there were also contemporary examples of the "horse of knowledge", exhibited for example at Astley's Amphitheatre.〔Barbara M. Benedict, ''Curiosity: A Cultural History of Early Modern Inquiry'', University of Chicago Press, 2002, p.206.〕 But performing horses were nothing unusual. No performing pigs are known to have been trained before. The pig was shown with great success in Dublin. After Bisset's death the pig was taken over by a Mr Nicholson, who toured it in Britain.〔Jan Bondeson, ''The feejee mermaid and other essays in natural and unnatural history'', Cornell University Press, 1999, pp.20-28〕 It was exhibited in Nottingham in 1784, coming to London in the following year."〔 According to publicity at the time, This entertaining and sagacious animal casts accounts by means of Typographical cards, in the same manner as a Printer composes, and by the same method sets down any capital or Surname, reckons the number of People present, tells by evoking on a Gentleman's Watch in company what is the Hour and Minutes; he likewise tells any Lady's Thoughts in company, and distinguishes all sorts of colours. The show was a great success, and the pig later toured the provincial towns, returning to London later in the year and then moving on to the continent of Europe. After a career of four years a report stated that the pig died in 1788. However, a later report claimed that it had just returned from France following the revolution of 1789, and was ready to "discourse on the Feudal System, the Rights of Kings and the Destruction of the Bastille".〔 The phenomenon caused much comment. James Boswell recalls conversations with Samuel Johnson in which he joked about the pig's scholarship. Johnson never saw the pig. He died just before it came to London, but he commented on a report of its show in Nottingham. He suggested that "the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. ''Pig'' has, it seems, not been wanting to ''man'', but ''man'' to ''pig''. We do not allow ''time'' for his education, we kill him at a year old." Another man present joked that Alexander Pope would not have used the pig as a symbol of "the lowest degree of grovelling instinct" in his works if this creature had been known to him, but added that the pig had probably been subject to some form of torture to force it to respond to commands. Johnson replied that at least it had escaped slaughter "the pig has no cause to complain; he would have been killed the first year if he had not been ''educated'', and protracted existence is a good recompence for very considerable degrees of torture."〔Boswell, ''Life of Johnson'', July 12, 1784.〕 The discussion about how the pig had been trained also led to disputes about the cognitive abilities of pigs; whether the animal actually recognised letters or even words, or whether it was simply responding to direct prompting. The phenomenon was also discussed in instructional literature aimed at children, to describe the essential difference between human and animal capacities and to warn against cruelty to animals, on the assumption that the pigs were badly beaten by their trainers to force them to behave.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Learned pig」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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