4 IS ANIMAL LIFE SACRED ? 



than any used by those who denounce field sports on 

 political or economical grounds. 



If we turn to Nature for light on the subject, we get 

 it plenty of it but of rather a lurid kind. Nobody 

 can have ventured beyond the threshold of animal 

 biology without being amazed by the recklessness 

 with which the ' sacred thing ' is squandered. The 

 mortality especially the infant mortality is some- 

 thing appalling. In England, during the decade from 

 1881 to 1890, the rate of human mortality sank to the 

 unprecedently low figure of 191 per thousand per 

 annum. In many organisms which pass through 

 several metamorphoses, not one in a thousand reaches 

 maturity. As an example of this wastefulness of life, 

 let us consider the domestic routine of a common 

 British insect known as the oil-beetle (Meloe) as lately 

 elucidated by M. Fabre and Professor Miall. In its 

 mature state this is a sluggish, unlovely creature, 

 feeding harmlessly enough on buttercups, but endowed 

 with the unpleasant faculty, enjoyed by many Coleoptera, 

 of distilling from its joints, when interfered with, a foul- 

 smelling juice. Every female is believed to lay three 

 batches of eggs in the course of a summer, each con- 

 sisting of from eight to nine thousand. They are 

 deposited in a hole in ground frequented by humble 

 bees. In due time, if all goes well, each egg emits a 

 small, exceedingly active, yellow larva. No waste 

 of life so far; but mark what follows. The horde of 

 larvce run about in desperate haste, trying to match 

 the colour of their bodies with the yellow centre of a 



