3IENTAL DIFFERENCE AND DISORDER. 249 



Occasionally in a literal, but more frequently in a figura- 

 tive, sense man ' goads ' animals into madness. On the 

 other hand, his persecution often extends to the death of a 

 poor animal in the hunt or race. He both literally and 

 figuratively hunts or races them to death. I refer to cases in 

 which death results from combined mental and physical 

 exhaustion. Hunting by man by bringing to bay, or pro- 

 ducing desperation or despair is, moreover, a fertile cause of 

 the development of sudden furiosity, apt to pass into mur- 

 derous or homicidal mania. 



Man's persecution for instance, of game or wild animals, 

 of pariah dogs, of domestic cats, frequently leads directly or 

 indirectly, through various degrees of -wretchedness, to their 

 suicide. Among the more immediate and minor results are 

 incessant and increasing anxiety, and a constant sense of 

 peril, apt to pass into morbid fear, and that into delusion. 

 Teasing, tantalising, irritation, or provocation of all kinds 

 especially where persistent is almost certain to give rise, 

 unless in morbidly placid animals, in the first instance to 

 loss of temper and to viciousness, with natural, but too 

 frequently dangerous, efforts at self-defence or revenge. 



Petting or pampering animals such as the chimpanzee 

 or dog like children, has the same effect of ' spoiling ' them 

 as regards especially their moral character, temper, and dis- 

 position. 



Punishment especially if undeserved or excessive in- 

 flicted by passionate, thoughtless masters, ignorant of their 

 own best interests, is always apt to lead, in such animals as 

 the horse and dog, to an outbreak of rage or fury, to sullen 

 obstinacy, or to concealed feelings of keen resentment, which 

 are gratified whenever a favourable opportunity for revenge 

 presents itself. 



Were man but to consider beforehand the possible effects 

 on mind or body, or both, of animals useful to him, and on 

 the integrity of which mind and body his own success in 

 life perhaps depends, of his various forms of irritating, 

 tormenting, neglecting, or ill-using them, he could not fail 

 greatly to modify his present conduct and attitude toward 

 them. 



