IS NATURE CRUEL ^ 409 



facts of the natives of many parts of the world enduring what 

 to us would be dreadful torments without exhibiting any signs 

 of pain. Examples of this are to be found in almost every 

 book of travels. I will here only mention one. Among most 

 of the Australian tribes there is a regular scale of punishment 

 for various offences. When a man entices awav another man's 

 wife (or in some other offence of an allied nature) the allotted 

 punishment is, that the complainant and his nearest relatives, 

 often eight or ten in number or even more, are to be allowed 

 to thrust a spear of a certain size into the offender's leg between 

 ankle and knee. The criminal appears before the chiefs of the 

 tribe, he holds out his leg, and one after another the members 

 of the offended family walk up in turn, each sticks in his 

 spear, draws it out, and retires. When all have done so, the 

 leg is a mass of torn flesh and skin and blood ; the sufferer has 

 stood still without shrinking during the whole operation. Tie 

 then goes to his hut with his wife, lies down, and she covers 

 the leg with dust — probably fine wood ashes. For a few 

 days he is fed with a thin gruel only, then gets up, and is very 

 soon as well as ever, except for a badly scarred leg. Of course 

 we cannot tell what he actually suffered, but certainly the aver- 

 age European could not have endured such pain unmoved. 



This, however, is only an illustration. It is not essential 

 to the argument, which is founded wholly on the principles 

 of Darwinian evolution. One of these principles, much in- 

 sisted on by Darwin, is, that no organ, faculty, or sensation 

 can have arisen in animals except through its utility to the 

 species. The sensation of pain has been thus developed, and 

 must therefore be proportionate in each species to its needs, 

 not heyond those needs. In the lowest animals, whose numbers 

 are enormous, whose powers of increase are excessive, whose 

 individual lives are measured bv hours or davs, and which 

 exist to be devoured, pain would bo almost or quite useless, and 

 would therefore not exist. Only as the organism increased in 

 complexity, in duratiou of life, nnrl in exposure to danger which 



