ARE CATS CRUEL? 135 



reasoning emotion of the crowd in the same way. To 

 a less serious extent the emotional unreasonableness of 

 a number of men and women is being played upon at 

 the present day by quite a large variety of agitators, 

 would-be leaders of crusades and campaigns against the 

 beneficent work of the physiological and medical labor- 

 atories of our universities and medical schools. 



There are one or two other features about " cruelty " 

 and the mental conditions leading to and arising from 

 it, which, however uncanny and troubling, should be 

 carefully considered when public opinion is roused in 

 regard to its repression. Among these is the fact that 

 the word is freely applied to the mere infliction of pain 

 without consideration of the question as to whether 

 there is a guilty mind determining it. Storms and frosts 

 are called " cruel " by poetic license ; but it is probably 

 quite wrong to call a cat or a tiger cruel. These animals 

 take pleasure in playing with their prey, as they would 

 with an inanimate ball or mechanical toy. There is no 

 reason to suppose that they are conscious of the inflic- 

 tion of pain or take pleasure in pain as pain. And so 

 it must happen sometimes with thoughtless human 

 beings who disregard the pain which they cause, when 

 eagerly engaged in " sport" or in the pursuit of some all- 

 absorbing and consuming purpose. The whole subject 

 of cruelty is a distressing one, but should not on that 

 account be misapprehended or dealt with wildly and 

 blindly. 



Twenty-five years ago a Royal Commission sat which 

 was appointed to inquire as to what restrictions, if any, 

 it was desirable to place upon the practice of making 

 experiments on animals for physiological and medical 

 purposes. As a result of its labours an Act of Parlia- 

 ment was passed which made definite regulations for the 

 purpose of preventing unqualified persons from indulg- 

 ing in reckless experiments on animals. There were 

 stories circulated by the agitators then as there are 



