14 PERCEPTION HOW MODIFIED, 



and to have enforced the fact that the feeling of 

 the salmonidse for I suppose the incident you 

 have related applies to the whole of the family- 

 is so obtuse, inasmuch as too often, when I pull 

 a beautiful trout out of the water and see it 

 writhing in the act of extricating the hook 

 from its mouth, I am seized with compunction 

 of conscience, and feel as I would not wish to 

 feel for the deed I have committed. 



PISCATOK. You have forgotten the maxim to 

 kill your fish before extracting the hook. But 

 passing that by, I can assure you that with more 

 practice you will lose your over-acute feeling. 

 It is remarkable how habit reconciles one to 

 acts : I may mention an anecdote in illustration 

 of this. When a student engaged in some 

 physiological inquiries on the blood, I had 

 occasion to ask the assistance of a butcher ; it 

 was to hold the head of a sheep whilst I laid 

 bare the jugular vein of the animal. It required 

 a little careful manipulation with the scalpel, 

 some gentle strokes of the knife after the first 

 incision, which could occasion little pain and 

 were attended with hardly any loss of blood. 

 Suddenly, the butcher let go his hold of the 

 head, turning away, saying " he could not stand 



