The Learned Pig

[Samuel Moyer]

Flipping through _Witnessing America_ Edited by Noel Rae... a book of first
hand accounts... and saw this bit about a Learned Pig.

Rare Pig.  As Recorded by Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia...July 14, 1797.

Went to see a "learned pig."  He was over a year old, was about 1/2 a foot
high, and had cost the owner 1000 dollars.  He distinguished all the letters
in the alphabet on cards and picked them up with his mouth, he spelled every
word that was told to him by bringing the letters of which those words were
composed and laying them at his owner's feet.  He did several small sums in
addition, subtraction, and multiplication, he distinguished colors, and
lastly he told the name of the card taken out of the pack, by taking up with
his mouth the corresponding card from a pack on the floor.


Sam