9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the arctic fox, if disabled, is sometimes not only destroyed, but 

 eaten by its companions. One of a school of porpoises at play around 

 a vessel, as we once witnessed, was injured by a pole hurled at it, 

 when it was instantly pursued by dozens of others with a celerity of 

 movement that was astonishing. 



Darwin, commenting on this trait in animals, says : " It is almost 

 the blackest fact in natural history that animals should expel a 

 wounded one from the herd, or gore or worry it to death." 



That the helpless and suffering should be thus destroyed does in- 

 deed seem to indicate an absence of sympathy in strange contrast 

 with the kindness and affection shown in innumerable instances be- 

 tween animals of the same species. But the kind-hearted author al- 

 ready cited remarks that " instinct or reason may suggest the expelling 

 an injured companion, lest beasts of prey, including man, should be 

 tempted to follow the troop. In this case their conduct is not much 

 worse than that of the North American Indians, who leave their feeble 

 comrades to perish on the plains, or the Feejeeans, who, when their 

 parents get old or fall ill, bury them alive." 



If the view of Darwin be correct, it is evident that the habit ori- 

 ginated in the wild and undomesticated state of the species, and that, 

 in destroying their disabled or wounded ones, they simply act out 

 their instinct of self-preservation. 



They get rid of those which might delay their flight or allure pur- 

 suit ; and we may conclude that love of life and fear of danger, rather 

 than any primal ferocity, develop and fix a habit which at first sight 

 appears singular and unaccountably savage. 



Animals in their wild state live in perpetual danger, and, we may 

 add, in perpetual fear. Sir John Richardson observes that wolves con- 

 tinually haunt the track of the buffalo, and the weak are often seized. 

 The peccary, says Cuvier, if it falls in the rear of the flock, is seized by 

 the jaguar, and the feeble, straggling ones of every herd become a prey 

 to its enemies, and incite pursuit. It would be strange, indeed, if this 

 source of danger, so obvious and persistent, should escape the sagacity 

 of animals, or be disregarded by their prudence. We know that ani- 

 mals of many kinds defend each other, and thus protect themselves. 

 The habit referred to is merely a method of defense. The courageous 

 and strong stand guard over the herd or flock in time of danger, and 

 the intelligence or instinct which prompts this also prompts the re- 

 moval of an element of weakness. 



Nor do animals differ in this respect from man. Does history fur- 

 nish no instances where commanders of armies have sacrificed the 

 wounded, and destroyed by poison or otherwise the weak and helpless 

 that the strong might escape destruction ? Equally with animals and 

 with man, danger may suggest and put in execution means for secur- 

 ing safety, which show a strange absence of sympathy in the one case, 

 and of humanity in the other. 



