346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his enemy and been left to linger on a sunburned soil, with hunger un- 

 appeased and thirst unslaked. Most of us have seen the picture of the 

 dying camel in the desert, glancing up with fearful eye at the vultures 

 hovering above him ; and the cat playing with the terror-stricken 

 mouse is to many a familiar sight. Over other and grosser cruelties 

 23racticed by one animal on another, it would be best to draw a veil. 

 A far pleasanter picture is it to contemplate the beauties of Nature, 

 the glorious vegetation, the singing of birds, the gamboling of the 

 lambs in the meadows, or the wild herds in the prairies ; and yet there 

 is no escape from the fact that animals practice toward one another 

 nearly every human crime. There is the bright side of the shield, but 

 there is the other which shows that "the whole creation groaneth and 

 travaileth with pain until now." 



Man, like other carnivorous animals, derives a pleasure from hunt- 

 ing his prey ; and, indeed, many of the gratifications of life are depend- 

 ent upon his animal instincts. In a primitive condition, while the 

 woman is at home providing for the household, the husband is away 

 in the forest or on the mountain seeking for food, and finding a keen 

 exhilaration in the chase. In a higher state of civilization the instinct 

 still remains ; for, although the butcher may supply the meat, the 

 sportsman still pursues the game ; or if the fish-monger sells the salm- 

 on, the zest for catching the fish still exists. A man does not kill 

 his own sheep for dinner, but he approves of the act ; the most honest 

 and guileless lady will not hesitate to eat the bird for the capture of 

 which cunning and treachery have been employed. It would seem, 

 from these examples, that a carnivorous animal like man can not frame 

 a code of laws in relation to his inferiors, or determine the rights of 

 the lower animals, on any Christian or other ethical principle, such as 

 a to do as we would be done by." Up to recent times we have acknowl- 

 edged no other law than " might is right." For I am not aware that 

 society or the public voice has put any restraint on man's desire to kill 

 whatsoever animals he pleases for his food ; as for clothing, he may 

 capture any creature he fancies, and steal the skin, coveting it the more 

 the handsomer its coat ; while society has not hitherto placed any lim- 

 its upon his greed. We not only eat for necessity, but we foster and 

 pamper our appetites, we breed creatures for our uses, and, when fit 

 for our stomachs, kill them, doing also what humanity has never yet 

 blushed at; first mutilating them and unsexing them. It has been truly 

 said that in this sad world one of the greatest gifts bestowed on the 

 animal creation is the relation of the sexes ; and the singing of birds, 

 the building of nests, the mating of animals, have given rise to much of 

 the poetry of Nature. But it has been left for man to make herds of 

 beef, and flocks of mutton, and horses whose only function is to drag 

 our carriages. One might ask, in these sentimental and aesthetic days, 

 whether one sigh of pity has ever been raised over these poor maimed 

 creatures ? What do those who talk of the rights of animals say on this 



