THE APPARENT CRUELTY OF NATURE, 265 
It is hardly fair, of course, to adduce the known suscepti- 
bility to pain of horses and dogs as an argument upon the 
other side of the question; for these, by long domestication 
and careful selection, have become civilized, so to speak, 
with their mental powers, and consequently their capacity 
for suffering, increased in a proportionate degree. To them 
Nature cannot be cruel, for the simple but sufficient reason 
that they have been elevated by the agency of man to a 
position which is wholly unnatural. And therefore, considered 
in this respect, they are outside the scope of our inquiry. 
So far, then, our line of investigation has tended to show 
that pain, as we usually understand the expression, must be 
almost, if not altogether, unknown to the invertebrates, the 
fish, and the reptiles; that by the birds it can scarcely be 
experienced in any great degree; and that even in the 
higher mammals it cannot be what it 1s in the human subject. 
That pain can be felt by mammals, however, it would be idle 
to deny; and therefore it remains for us to see whether, in 
its infliction upon the members of even this comparatively 
small division of the animal kingdom, Nature can consistently 
be described as “ cruel.” ; 
The “cruelty” im question, of course, would be caused by 
the teeth, claws, or other weapons of creatures of prey, to 
which, probably, the vast majority of deaths in the animal 
kingdom are due. And we have to see to what extent the 
injuries inflicted by these are likely to be productive of 
suffering. 
PREDACEOUS birds, as a general rule, kill their victims 
instantaneously. The sharp, curved talons, which are in- 
variably the weapons of offence, are practically automatic in 
their action, and are driven, by the mere weight ot the body 
pressing upon the limbs at the moment of seizure, deeply 
into the vitals of the prey. In such cases, little or no pain 
can be inflicted. But when the flesh is lacerated, as by the 
claws of the larger cats, suffering in no slight degree would 
appear to be inevitable. And as these animals do not in all 
cases kill their victims before proceeding to devour them, 
that suffering would frequently seem to be of lingering 
character, as well as of great intensity. 
Whether such is in fact the case, however, is more than 
doubtful. Even im the human subject, severe local injury 
commonly deadens the sense of pain for a time. The im- 
