634 
THE VETERINARIAN, AUGUST 1, 1870. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
TRANSIT OF ANIMALS. 
That some considerable amount of suffering must be 
inflicted on the lower animals by man in the exercise of his 
“ dominion over them,” no one who looks at the matter 
fairly will attempt to deny. It can scarcely be pleasant to 
the beast of the field to be deprived of his power of roaming 
at will, to be fed and watered according to the dictates of 
science or caprice, and finally to be driven to the shambles, and, 
in a manner most convenient to the butcher, converted into 
meat for man. Not liking any part of the process the beast 
resists, and must be coerced ; life is short, and drovers are 
not disposed to waste much of their allotted span in the 
endeavour to coax a refractory ox into a state of gentle 
obedience. Indeed, in the present state of bovine training, 
it is to be feared that such endeavours would only end in vexa- 
tion of spirit ; the problem therefore stands, given an animal 
that refuses to move under persuasion, how much and what 
kind of force may a being who is properly called “ humane,” 
viz., who has the nature of a man, employ in order to make 
the lower creature subserve his will? No answer has been 
or will be given beyond that which the individual con- 
structs for his own guidance, and it is only when the suffer- 
ing which is inflicted is manifestly in excess of the necessity 
that society can rightly insist upon the interference of the 
legislature. Among the injuries which are obviously unne- 
cessary as serving no good or required object, are those 
which result from starving, crushing, and suffocating ani- 
mals, in the act of conveying them by land or sea to their 
destination. The extent of the wrong which has been done 
will perhaps never be known, nor is it necessary to inquire 
further in that direction ; the cruelty which has been tole- 
rated in the past will be at least diminished in the future, 
