142 SUICIDE. 



deep, it will drown himself if lie so desire ; and lie obviously 

 does so desire in many cases of suicide. 



Poisoning and cut throat occur only in exceptional cases. 

 Strangulation occasionally occurs in accidental cases in the 

 frantic efforts, for instance, of stalled horses or cattle to 

 escape from their neck-halters or fetters in panic from fire 

 or other causes. 



More or less connected with the subject of suicide in them 

 are the following phenomena in the mental history of the 

 lower animals : 



1. The feeling of ennui and the suffering from all forms 

 or degrees of the tedium vitce. 



2. Sense of decadence of the mental and bodily powers, 

 with the results of such a feeling or knowledge. 



3. Sense of approaching death, and the preparations there- 

 for. 



4. Appreciation of death of the distinction between life 

 and death between living, dying, and death. 



5. Care of the dead, including respect for them, their re- 

 moval and burial. 



Captive animals of all kinds, including many of those 

 that are house pets, suffer as decidedly, as do so frequently 

 the mistresses of the latter, all the tortures of ennui. The 

 monotony of existence begets an irritable or fractious dispo- 

 sition that creates worries out of every trifle. In course of 

 time life becomes tiresome, every necessary duty irksome, 

 every little trial a source of irritation ; the animal becomes 

 dispirited; it has no aim and no hope in life, so that it 

 gradually ceases to value it. Pining, indifference, marasmus 

 are common results, and suicide an exceptional one, in cases 

 where depression passes into melancholia. Of a voyage on 

 the African Lake Nyanza, Baker writes : ( The ennui of this 

 wretched voyage appears to try the temper of both man and 

 beast. The horses, donkeys, and camels are constantly fight- 

 ing and biting at all around,' while the women were ' daily 

 quarrelling together like bulldogs.' 



Unquestionably the dog, for instance, has a consciousness 

 of the decline of its own physical powers, and it acts in va- 

 rious ways upon this consciousness. Thus the old harrier 



