520 



THE GUIDE T< ) NATURE 



trees; and also providing an open sea- 

 son of one week in November of each 

 year, when any licensed hunter may 

 pursue and kill wild deer in these live 

 counties. The result last autumn of 

 this open season was a sickening 

 slaughter and wounding of the beauti- 

 ful deer, which had increased and he- 

 come tame during the yeais of protec- 

 tion. The protests of the Massachu- 

 setts Society for Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals have so far had no effect. 

 If the deer are too numerous in some 

 localities to suit captious complainants, 

 surely the state can suggest some 

 humane way to lessen their numbers. 

 It is, however, a well known fact that 

 the numbers of the deer and the 

 damage done by them have been great- 

 ly exaggerated. Having resided here 

 for some years. I am able to state posi- 

 tively that the deer have not recently 

 been seen in groups of more than eight 

 or ten at a time. They inhabit my ex- 

 tensive woods, traverse my meadows 

 and do no harm of any kind. The ap- 

 ples are just as abundant, and where 

 the crops have been nibbled here and 

 there, the result is not noticeable in 

 the harvesting. 



As to the hunters, it is well known 

 that they are eager to pursue and 

 destroy all birds and animals every- 

 where in the woods. They procured an 

 open season of a month in which to kill 

 the harmless grey squirrels, one of the 

 most fascinating inhabitants of the 

 groves. They have destroyed all the 

 quail in this region and made partridge 

 scarce. Posting of their lands by 

 owners and other efforts for protec- 

 tion of wild creatures become each 

 year more ineffectual against the in 

 vasion of lawdess hunters. As to the 

 trout, it is hopeless even to try to 

 protect them. Some stringent laws 

 should be passed to aid those w T ho would 



save some of the wild creatures for 



posterity. 



The subject of vivisection has be- 

 come prominent lately, and it appears 

 to any reasoning person that the vivi- 

 sectors are hiding some dark doings 

 behind their closed doors. The rage 

 and rancor with which they oppose any 

 and all suggestions for inquiry into 

 their ways, and for the restriction of 

 their practises arouse suspicion. The 

 venom with which certain doctors at- 

 tack through the press any one who 

 dares to defend the defenceless animals, 

 is enough to turn people generally 

 against the medical profession. 



One cannot wonder that some phy- 

 sicians are callous and even cruel to- 

 ward human beings when such a spirit 

 dominates them. The autocrats of the 

 medical profession forget that in these 

 days people generally do their own 

 thinking, and that the doctors are no 

 longer a privileged and reverenced 

 class, but can be made amenable to law. 

 That noble philanthropist, Phillip 

 Brooks, has aptly said: "Theology 

 and medicine, the minister and the doc- 

 tor, make the same mistakes. Both 

 of them are liable to lose sight of their 

 ends in their means, and to elaborate 

 their systems with a cruel heartlessness, 

 forgetting for the moment the purposes 

 of mercy which are their warrant for 

 existence. 



Thus theology has driven human 

 souls into exquisite agony with its 

 cold dissection of the most sacred feel- 

 ings; and medicine has tortured sen- 

 sitive animals in a recklessness of 

 scientific vivisection which has no re- 

 lation, direct, or indirect, to human 

 good." 



A Nature Lover. 



L. B. 



