330 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



cats, canaries, parrots, or other animals that have so well 

 subserved our purposes, but can do so, it is supposed, no 

 longer. 



It may be argued that the greatest kindness that can 

 be shown to our worn-out favourites or servants is to put 

 them to the speediest death ; and an additional argument in 

 favour of this policy or procedure is to be found in the profit 

 that may yet be made of their skins or bones. No doubt 

 there are cases, or circumstances, in which it may be well 

 to take the summary measure of a painless and immediate 

 death, rather, for instance, than subject them to inevitable 

 cruelties and ignominy, to spin out their weary lives in suf- 

 fering and sorrow. Not a few humane military men or 

 sportsmen have had such an affection for their old chargers 

 or hunters, that they have made express stipulations in their 

 wills for the shooting of the said favourites immediately after 

 their master's demise, simply to prevent the possibility of 

 their falling into the hands of a cruel cab-driver, coachman, 

 or groom. And it is impossible not to sympathise with the 

 feeling which dictated such post-mortem arrangements. 



But there is no good reason why, if it be desirable or in- 

 cumbent to maintain aged men and women in comfort in their 

 declining years, we should not do the same with certain 

 animals whose only fault is the decrepitude of age who have, 

 while in the vigour of youth, been the joy of a master's or mis- 

 tress's life, or who have borne the heat and burden of what 

 is, in nine cases out of ten, a very arduous day. And there is 

 decided advantage in establishing asylums for the old, in that 

 it gives the veterinarian or physician due opportunity of 

 studying the diseases of age, mental and bodily, the phe- 

 nomena of gradual decay. Such opportunities are no trivial 

 matter ; for every addition to our knowledge of the infirmi- 

 ties of other animals may be turned to profitable account in 

 our acquaintance with, and treatment of, those of man. 



3. So far as I am aware there are no orphanages for animal 

 foundlings, where they may be brought up by foster parents. 

 Such institutions, among other advantages, would furnish a 

 desirable opportunity of studying the genesis of mind and 



