THE APPARENT CRUELTY OF NATURE. 255 
character, not only permit such a state of things to exist 
among His sentient creatures, but even render it necessary 
and inevitable by the conditions of Creation itself? 
I do not propose to enter into the theological question of 
the Fall of Man as affecting the lower animals, or even to lay 
any particular stress upon the obvious fact that a very large 
proportion of such suffering as they may endure is directly 
or indirectly due to his agency. Man, in his present condi- 
tion, is wn-natural; and it is rather my purpose to gather 
together such evidence and argument as may enable us to 
judge whether there be any true cruelty in Nature—rightly 
considered—at all. 
THIS line of investigation, of course confronts us, in the 
first place, with the question of pain. What 7s Pain, physio- 
logically speaking? Perhaps we may best define it as the 
sensation experienced by the brain as a result of certain 
injuries to, or affections of, the sensory portion of the nervous 
system ; for we know that a prick in the foot, for instance, 
is not felt until a sufficient time has elapsed for a message to 
be telegraphed, as it were, to the brain, and a return message 
telegraphed back to the seat of the injury. If the spinal 
cord be divided, again, pain at once ceases to be felt in the 
parts below the region of severance, owing to the interrup- 
tion of communication with the brain. Clearly, then, if the 
sensation of pain be ultimately resident in the brain,.the 
degree of that sensation which can be felt in individual cases 
must depend very largely indeed upon the degree of per- 
fection attained by the brain, as well as of the nervous system 
which depends upon it. And the character of this must 
consequently be the groundwork of any investigation which 
we may make into the existence of the sense of pain in the 
animal kingdom. 
Here, perhaps, it may be as well to divide our subject into 
three heads, each of which shall claim our attention in turn. 
These are :-— 
1. Is the sense of pain present in the whole, or in any 
extensive portion, of the animal kingdom ? 
2. To what degree does the sensation of pain extend in 
those creatures in which it may be proved to exist ? 
3. Are such sufferings as animals may endure enhanced by 
the anticipation or recollection of pain, or by the fear and 
dread of death ? 
7 2 
