Dr Tanner. 21 



that of their descendants of the present day. Fighting is un- 

 doubtedly one of the greatest pleasures some men and many 

 animals have. Under the softening influences of culture the 

 quarrelsome instinct will in time be lost, and the * rapture of 

 the strife* will no longer stir the human breast. Although 

 it is true that as our intellectual faculties become stronger, our 

 instinctive ones diminish in power ; it is by no means certain 

 that we do not get more amusement out of the latter than 

 out of the former. Personally, I prefer a judicious mixture of 

 the two, with which to beguile my hours of relaxation. 



I have said so much about my own athletic doings, that 

 I must explain that although I won a lot of events in that 

 line, my success was due not to my being particularly good, 

 but to the fact of my opponents being rather moderate. I 

 was about equally proficient at all the various sports I took 

 up ; but was not first-class at any of them. 



One of our best friends in Cork was Dr Tanner, father of 

 the present Member of Parliament. He was a fine, generous- 

 hearted man and a grand operator, whose skill with the knife 

 earned him the name, among his admiring medical students, 

 of The Butcher. He made up for any lack in knowledge 

 of minute anatomy, by extraordinary ' nerve ' and ready 

 resource. He, like his eldest son, Major Kenny Tanner, 

 an old gQth man, was a staunch Tory. Politics, I may 

 remark, have no attraction for me. If I turn to the history 

 of sixty years ago, I find that the views of the then Liberals, 

 say, on the Reform Bill, were not as advanced as those of 

 the Conservatives of the present day. I am an evolutionist. 

 From the history of nations I see the working of evolution 

 in politics and religion, as clearly as I can trace it from books 

 of stone, in the descent of the one-toed horse or in the two- 

 toed chamois. 



Billiards was a favourite game of the Cork sportsmen. 

 There were several fine players among the markers, notably, 

 Tom Chudleigh, George Dunovan, and Dan Horgan. The 

 last mentioned was a bright exception to his predecessors ; for 



