147 



" viiiced that when a bird has made up its mind to 



" die it is perfectly able to do so, even though every 



" organ be healthy. When depressed and out of 



" health a bird has no desire to live, and remedies 



*' most frequentl}^ onh' prolong its existence for a few 



" days." Bow does a bird " make up its mind to die " ? 



Before it can make up its mind it must obviously have 



some idea of what death is. Now whatever differences 



of opinion there may be about an inductive faculty in 



animals, I never heard a competent observer maintain 



that the most intelligent animal (let alone a bird, with 



its rudimentary brain) was capable of abstract ideas. 



To say it is perfectly able to die even though every 



organ be healthy, is sheer nonsense. No creature dies 



without an adequate cause, and the will is not one of 



these. The most determined man in the world cannot 



hold his breath for three minutes, much less kill 



himself by an effort of will. That an animal or a 



man may die without any apparent disease of his 



organs is of course true, death from chloroform 



vapour is an instance : but because the lesion is 



obscure, not evident to the naked eye, it is no less 



real. Chloroform paralyses the respiratory centre in 



the medulla oblongata — the most important organ in 



the body, and a medulla poisoned with chloroform 



is no more a healthy organ than a liver poisoned with 



phosphorus. Then, if all the organs are healthy, why 



recommend remedies ? Do they act on the mind, and 



if so how? Or is the remedy so nasty that the bird 



thinks death may be purchased too dearl}^ or so nice 



that it thinks after all there is still something to live 



for? 



(To be continiLedj. 



