IS NATURE CRUEL? 411 



that fraction is we can only roughly estimate by carefully con- 

 sidering the circumstances of each case. These show that it 

 is certainly almost infinitesimal in by far the larger part of the 

 animal kingdom, very small in all invertebrates, moderately 

 small in fishes and reptiles, as well as in all the smaller birds 

 and mammals. In the larger of these two classes it is prob- 

 ably considerable, but still far below that of even the lowest 

 races of man. 



A Possible Misconception 



It may be said — I fear it will be said — that this idea of 

 the lower animals suffering less pain than we suffer will Ix* 

 taken as an argument in favour of vivisection. Xo doubt it 

 will; but that docs not in the least affect the actual truth of 

 the matter, which is, I believe, as I have stated. The moral 

 argument against vivisection remains, whether the animals suf- 

 fer as much as we do or only half as much. The bad effect 

 on the operator and on the students and spectators remains; 

 the undoubted fact that the practice tends to produce a callous- 

 ness and a passion for experiment, which leads to unauthorised 

 experiments in hospitals on unprotected patients, remains; the 

 horrible callousness of binding the sufferers in the operating 

 trough, so that they cannot express their pain by sound or 

 motion, remains; their treatment, after the experiment, by 

 careless attendants, brutalised by custom, remains ; the argu- 

 ment of the uselessness of a large proportion of the experi- 

 ments, repeated again and again on scores and hundreds of 

 animals, to confirm or refute the work of other vivisectors, 

 remains ; and, finally, the iniquity of its use to demonstrate 

 already-established facts to physiological students in hundreds 

 of colleges and schools all over the world, remains. T myself 

 am thankful to be able to believe that even the hiijhest animals 

 below ourselves do not feel so acutely as we do; but that fact 

 does not in anv wav remove mv fundamental disgust at vivi- 

 section as being brutalising and immoral. 



