348 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



said thus much in extenuation of vivisections, although, 

 as before intimated, my own organisation renders it 

 impossible for me to witness them in the case of the 

 higher animals. With lower animals the case is alto- 

 gether different. They feel no pain. If we know 

 anything about them, we know that. You are scep- 

 tical ? You want to know how it can be 2>'^^oved that 

 these animals feel no pain. It is of course impossible 

 for us to say accurately ivhat any animal feels ; we 

 cannot even know what our fellow-beings feel ; we can 

 only approximately guess, interpreting their gestures 

 and cries according to our own experience. Admitting 

 to the full this initial difficulty, we may nevertheless 

 assert that, if it is allowable to make any statement on 

 this point, there are certain capital facts which force 

 the conclusion upon us, that so far from Pain being 

 common to all animals, it is, on the contrary, the con- 

 sequence of a very high degree of specialisation, and is 

 only met with in animals of complex organisation. It 

 is probable that reptiles have only a very slight capacity 

 for pain, and animals lower than fish none at all. 



When we see an animal shrink, struggle, or bite, 

 when we hear it cry or hiss, we naturally interpret 

 these actions as the expressions of j^ain, because pain 

 calls forth similar actions in us. But there is a fallacy 

 in this interpretation. The movements which in us 

 accompany or succeed the pain are not produced by 

 the organs which feel the pain, even when pain is 

 actually present : they are not produced by pain, but 

 incited by the stimulus pain gives to other organs. 



