HAROLD C. ERNST 1 



what they have felt and not felt. We know that we 

 cannot feel without our brains, and we find that when- 

 ever we can test the functions of the brains of other 

 animals, they are like ours in kind though differing 

 in degree. We see also that the general type of the 

 nervous system is the same in all vertebrate animals, 

 and that its increasing specialization, as we ascend 

 the scale, is all in the direction of resemblance to our 

 own. We have, therefore, every reason to believe that 

 the brain is always the organ of consciousness, and 

 that when it is absent, or inactive, there can be no 

 consciousness, and consequently no feeling. 



"As the existence of feeling depends upon the 

 activity of the brain, there is a fair presumption 

 beforehand that it also increases with the more per- 

 fect development of that organ ; and we should natur- 

 ally expect to find that animals can both enjoy and 

 suffer more, as they stand higher upon the ladder of 

 being, and that man the highest of animals is 

 also chief in sensibility. We can never get inside the 

 consciousness of a creature with which we cannot 

 communicate ; but in the human race we find a cer- 

 tain rough proportion between sensibility and intel- 

 lectual development, which leads us to believe in a 

 similar proportion existing in the ranks below us. 

 Savages will undergo with equanimity tortures which 

 no civilized man (except perhaps under great excite- 

 ment) could endure ; and it is impossible to believe 

 that the prolonged pain of tattooing could be borne 

 for the sake of ornament by any one who felt it as we 

 should do. 



(page 14.) " Among human creatures we see the 

 effect of mental development upon the sense of pain 

 very clearly in the case of children. An infant can 

 be vaccinated without making it cry, if its mind be 



