COMPOSITION OF ATMOSPHERIC AIR AZOTE. 87 



Reverting to the experiment with which the course com- 

 menced, the properties of the gas remaining in the jar after 

 the combustion of phosphorus in a confined portion of com- 

 mon air, the AZOTE, were examined; and the various other 

 methods of obtaining that gas described. Its effect in ex- 

 tinguishing burning bodies was shown, and its history and 

 properties were related; it being also stated to be the great cha- 

 racteristic element of animal-matter. 



The analysis of the air we breathe having thus been effected, 

 its constituent gases having thus been separated from each 

 other, and their respective properties examined, it remained 

 to confirm the conclusions which had been drawn respecting its 



the effect upon the mind of early cruelty to animals, is as correct, as the Na- 

 tural Philosophy with which it is commonly associated, is unfounded. It is 

 perfectly true that the delight with which a child beholds the struggles of 

 the impaled beetle, or the contortions of the mutilated worm, though in- 

 nocent of intentional cruelty at first, will, if unchecked, lead to the infliction 

 of torture upon animals higher in the scale of organization, as the child's 

 increasing years and strength enable him to subject them to his will ; and 

 that, by this practice, from the semblance to human sufferings which the 

 increased sensibility and apparent intelligence of such animals cause them 

 to exhibit, the man may at length become habituated to behold with compla- 

 cency the sufferings of his fellow-creatures, or even to take pleasure in their 

 infliction or aggravation. That such is the progress of cruelty too many 

 proofs unhappily exist. 



The modern discoveries respecting the want of concentration of nervous 

 sensibility in insects and worms of their diffused, and, as it were, diluted 

 life and the arguments which have been drawn from their constant expo- 

 sure, in nature, to injury and mutilation, confirming the inference of their 

 comparative freedom from pain, when organically injured, which is deducible 

 from those discoveries, while, happily, they relieve us from conclusions re- 

 garding the animal world which would be derogatory to the Divine Benevo- 

 lence, leave the injunctions of humanity, so far as the conduct of children 

 is concerned, possessed still of their full moral importance. 



Although we may be certain that Shakspeare mistook the appearance for 

 the reality, when he said, that 



" The poor beetle, that we tread upon, 



In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies," 



and that the mere fact of its natural exposure to such a death would not 

 otherwise be reconcilable with the beneficence which fills creation, yet as the 

 bodily writhings and the endeavours to escape, of insects, and other lower 

 animals, when injured or forcibly detained, are perfectly similar in appear- 

 ance to those occasioned by the acute sufferings of animals of the higher 

 classes, as Quadrupeds and Birds, the habit of taking pleasure in beholding 

 them must be as injurious to the young mind, as it would be, were they 

 equally the result of an exquisite sense of pain. 



As the probable effect upon the immature mind of the practical cultiva- 

 tion of certain branches of Natural History is partially connected with the 

 main subject of these pages, and may be an object of solicitude with many 

 benevolent persons, I have thought that a statement of my own sentiments 

 upon it might not be misplaced on the present occasion. 



