50 The Book of Cats. 



the Cats have taken their meals and spent most of 

 their time with the servants, yet upon our return 

 they have immediately resumed their old ways, and 

 cut the kitchen dead. 



By the report of a police case at Marlborough 

 Street, on the 28th of June last, it appeared that a 

 husband, brutally ill-using his wife, flung her on the 

 ground, and seizing her by the throat, endeavoured 

 to strangle her. While, however, she lay thus, a 

 favourite Cat, named " Topsy," suddenly sprang 

 upon the man, and fastened her claws and teeth in 

 his face. He could not tear the Cat away, and was 

 obliged to implore the woman he had been ill-using 

 to take the Cat from him to save his life. 



The Cat is reproached with treachery and cruelty, 

 but Bigland argues that the artifices which it uses 

 are the particular instincts which the all-wise Creator 

 has given it, in conformity with the purposes for 

 which it was designed. Being destined to prey 

 upon a lively and active animal like the mouse, 

 which possesses so many means of escape, it is re- 

 quisite that it should be artful ; and, indeed, the 

 Cat, when well observed, exhibits the most evident 

 proofs of a particular adaptation to a particular 

 purpose, and the most striking example of a pecu- 

 liar instinct suited to its destiny. 



