406 THE WOKLD OF LIFE 



It is only the large, heavy, slow-moving mammals which can 

 be subject to much accidental injury in a state of nature from 

 such causes as rock-falls, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, or 

 falling trees ; and in these cases by far the larger portion would 

 either escape unhurt or would be killed outright, so that the 

 amount of pain suffered would, in any circumstances, be small ; 

 and as pain has been developed for the necessary purpose of 

 safe-guarding the body from often-recurring dangers, not from 

 those of rare occurrence, it need not be very acute. Perhaps 

 self-mutilation, or fighting to the death, are the greatest dan- 

 gers which most wild animals have to be guarded against ; and 

 no very extreme amount of pain would be needed for this pur- 

 pose, and therefore w^ould not have been produced. 



But it is undoubtedly not these lesser evils that have led to 

 the outcry against the cruelty of nature, but almost wholly 

 what is held to be the widespread existence of elaborate con- 

 trivances for shedding blood or causing j^ain that are seen 

 throughout nature — the vicious-looking teeth and claws of the 

 cat-tribe, the hooked beak and prehensile talons of birds of 

 prey, the poison fangs of serpents, the stings of wasps, and 

 many others. The idea that all these w^eapons exist for the 

 purpose of shedding blood or giving pain is wholly illusory. 

 As a matter of fact, their effect is whollv beneficent even to 

 the sufferers, inasmuch as they tend to the diminution of pain. 

 Their actual purpose is always to prevent the escape of cap- 

 tured food — of a w^ounded animal, which would then, indeed, 

 suffer useless pain, since it would certainly very soon be cap- 

 tured again and be devoured. The canine teeth and retractile 

 claws hold the prey securely ; the serpent's fangs paralyse it ; 

 and the w^asp's sting benumbs the living food stored up for its 

 young, or serves as a protection against being devoured itself 

 by insect-eating birds ; which latter, probably, only feel enough 

 pain to warn them against such food in future. The evidence 

 that animals which are devoured by lion or puma, by wolf or 

 wdld cat, suffer very little, is, I think, conclusive. The sud- 

 denness and violence of the seizure, the blow of the paw, the 



