ANIMALS IN SICKNESS 159 



life spares none, from the stags which die with 

 horns locked together on the mountain side, to the 

 locusts which impale themselves upon the barbed 

 wire of the Transvaal farms, or the cicalas which 

 rend their wings upon the thorns of the mimosa. 

 Death by violence seems to be the rule in the 

 lower forms of animal life, except in the case of 

 sudden plagues or changes of season. To the 

 largest quadrupeds, human fancy has conceded the 

 boon of a painless death ; but the remote, un- 

 trodden jungle where the elephants go to die 

 lies still among the undiscovered countries. 



The saddest side of these millions of unrecorded 

 deaths, from the human and humane points of view, 

 is that the creatures, for the most part, suffer un- 

 aided and die alone. There is, however, good 

 reason to believe that this is not always the case, 

 and that there are many instances of animal 

 sympathy, and some of animal aid for animal 

 suffering. On the other hand, it must be ad- 

 mitted that there is often a strong and apparently 

 natural impulse among animals, as among savage 

 men, to hasten the death of a sick comrade, which, 

 in some cases, take the form of deliberate and 

 premeditated murder of the sufferer. 



If ever human sentiment at the sight of fellow 

 creature's suffering be analysed, the two emotions 



