THE MAN 



47 



because extirpating the brain of the same animal 

 inflicts one-thousandth part of the prolonged suffering 

 which it undergoes when it makes its natural exit 

 from the world by being slowly forced down the 

 throat of a duck, and crushed and asphyxiated in that 

 creature's stomach. 1 



He had small stock of patience for the " senti- 

 mental hypocrisy " which evidenced its lack of sin- 

 cerity in not abstaining from eating the flesh of 

 creatures put to death in lingering torture, both in the 

 slaughter-house and on the moors, or in destroying 

 rats, mice, and other " sentient vermin " ; and when 

 the Act of 1876, on the Royal Commission concern- 

 ing which he was a member, was passed, he showed 

 how it exemplified the old adage that "one man may 

 steal a horse while the other may not look over the 

 hedge." 



While, as a member of a late Royal Commission, I 

 did my best to prevent the infliction of needless pain 

 for any purpose, I think it is my duty to take this 

 opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition 

 of the law which permits a boy to troll for pike or set 

 lines with live-frog bait for idle amusement, and at 

 the same time lays the teacher of that boy open to 

 the penalty of fine and imprisonment if he uses the 

 same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the 

 most beautiful and instructive of physiological spec- 

 tacles — the circulation in the web of the foot. 



So it comes about that in this year of grace 1877, 

 two persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. 



»I. 432. 



