272 THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S., ON 
lower animals of the mammalia suffer in proportion as they are 
highly organised; but I do not think they have any apprehension 
or anticipation of suffering. I often wonder if sheep, when they 
see their relatives hung up in that disgusting way, feel it, or 
understand it: I hope not, but I have seen instances where, from 
the smell of blood or from some instinct which we cannot explain, 
animals have shown a dread and horror at being near the place 
where they were to be slaughtered—an instinct of self-preserva- 
tion. Iwill not detain you further, but ask you to discuss this 
most interesting paper. 
The Hon. Secretary (Captain F. Perrie).—Two brief letters have 
been received from those not able to attend. 
The first is from Dr. D. Bippiz, M.R.C.S.E., who writes :— 
I believe the cruelty of Nature to be more apparent than real, 
and that the largest share of horror is contributed to it by the 
imagination; sudden catastrophes are never so full of pain as an 
anticipated calamity. At the same time there is much mystery 
about the subject, for the carnivora seem to have been constructed 
to devour animated victims. 
The second letter is from Dr. Gerarp Smitu, M.R.C.S.E. He 
writes :— 
“The Apparent Cruelty of Nature” is indeed an important 
subject to make clear, for so many are satisfied with a super- 
ficial knowledge of Nature, that they are unable justly to balance 
the two columns of the account. I feel, with Darwin, after his 
long and careful life of study, “that on the whole, pleasure de- 
cidedly predominates.” Death comes to animals, as a rule, quickly; 
they have none of the mental and moral struggle and sorrow of 
man, and if we examine the accounts given us by those who have 
escaped from the jaws of wild beasts after injury, it would appear 
probable that even the mouse feels little pain when the cat plays 
with it (vide Livingstone and the lion). Personally, I look to man 
as the agent intended to modify the pain of the lower animals. 
Man’s dominion over them, God-given as it is, should be exercised 
in doing all he can to make them happy; but still we see the 
apparent cruelty of Nature, added to by the actual cruelty of man ; 
though, thanks be to God, this latter is less day by day. Our use 
of the lower animals was never intended to include such acts as 
useless and merely curious vivisection, and the barbarities of un- 
skilled sportsmen and clumsy butchers. 
Mr. D. Howarp, F.C.S., &c.—It seems to me that the Chairman has 
admirably added to the Paper exactly what is wanted to complete 
it. We all have a natural anthropomorphic instinct, and attribute 
to animals our own thoughts and feelings, and every child naturally 
