CHAP. VI. DIRECT INJURIES. QUADRUPEDS. 177 



collection that he is no longer what he was. These 

 injuries are of various natures and of different degrees; 

 they either affect his personal wellbeing, or his neces- 

 sary possessions. In the former case, they are direct; 

 in the latter, indirect. The first will claim our atten- 

 tion in this chapter ; and, pursuing a uniformity of 

 plan in the mure popular, as well as in the scientific 

 portions of our work, we shall now enumerate the direct 

 injuries we are exposed to from the different branches 

 of the animal kingdom; first, from vertebrated ; and, 

 secondly, from invertebrated animals. 



(194.) QUADRUPEDS, more than any other animals, 

 have, in general, the greatest muscular strength, and 

 the most determined courage and ferocity ; it is, con- 

 sequently, from them that we have most to fear. When 

 it is considered that man, viewed as a material being, 

 is, by nature, one of the most defenceless in creation, 

 it seems wonderful that he is not subject to injuries 

 innumerable. Brute animals are all provided with 

 means of defence against their enemies, either by some 

 peculiar structure, or some defensive property. The 

 teeth of carnivorous beasts, the horns of ruminants, the 

 swiftness of some, and the intolerable stench of others, 

 the thick and impenetrable hide of the rhinoceros, and 

 the tusks of the elephant, are all natural weapons, or 

 preservative qualities, with which they are endowed for 

 self-preservation. But man has none of these ; in a 

 state of nature, he is as helpless as a child, scarcely 

 able to repel an infuriated cat, much less a dog, by the 

 mere exertion of animal strength. Yet he, alone, is 

 gifted with the attribute of reason ; and, by this, he is 

 impelled to use other substitutes for his defence, which 

 no animal can resist, and by which he can destroy not 

 only them, but, unhappily, his own species. It is, 

 however, to be remembered, that very few brute ani- 

 mals will attack us, if not previously provoked, or if 

 not pressed by the calls of hunger. There appears 

 something in the form of man, particularly when ani- 

 mated by courage, which seems to impress the brute 



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