PERVERSIONS OF THE NATURAL ABFECTIOXS. 65 



be the awkward and unwelcome duties of the mother some- 

 times to defend her progeny against the morbid voracity 

 the cannibalism of their own father for instance in the pig. 

 The male sow is a notorious cannibal. The female bee, too, 

 has to protect her young against the cannibalism of their 

 own father. There is a paternal indifference to the young 

 among male ruminants, solipeds and pachyderms. 



Marital affection becomes transformed sometimes, as in 

 man, into marital ill-usage, and there is no reason to doubt 

 that the 'hen-pecked husband ' is no figure of speech among 

 the lower animals. We read of the marital ill-usage of a 

 wife by a monkey, who first decoyed, and then drowned her 

 that is, committed murder (^Cassell). 



Conjugal quarrels are by no means confined to man. 

 Conjugal indifference is, in fact, a characteristic of poly- 

 gamous birds (Houzeau). Perversions of the parental 

 feelings occur, therefore, in either, or both, parents, though 

 most frequently, apparently > in the female. 



Filial love is equally wanting sometimes (Houzeau). We 

 are told, for instance, of dog-pups biting their own mother 

 (Gall). But this may arise from mere temper or irritation, 

 as well as from the irritability or indifference of disease. 



The young of most animals soon acquire a sense of in- 

 dependence of their parents, and they display no regret at 

 leaving them. But it may be reckoned a perversion of filial 

 love, or affection, when selfishness leads them to show no pity 

 or compunction in robbing these parents of food, in becoming 

 their competitors in the struggle for life, a competition that 

 gives rise to unseemly combats between parents and offspring 

 for supremacy, or for food (Houzeau). 



The most common perversion of fraternal or brotherly 

 love is the capriciousness, or inconstancy, of attachments, 

 companionships, or friendships whether between different 

 individuals of a species, or between members of different 

 species or genera. The same kind of caprice, or fickleness, 

 characterises attachments to (1) man, (2) places, and (3) 

 things. The ready attachment of some dogs to new human 

 friends is familiar, as is also the sometimes rapid, easy and 

 unaccountable transfer of affections in their own companion- 



VOL. II. F 



