458 Bestiarianism v. Common Sense. August, 
an actual volley of choice rhetoric and a promised one of 
mud and stones. But did we take a brood of newts, and 
endeavour, by gradually modifying their surroundings, to 
convert them in a series of generations into a terrestrial 
form, we should be at the mercy of the enemies of research, 
and might at any time undergo a prosecution made purposely 
as expensive as possible. 
Any man may keep a cobra, and may, if he likes, feed it 
upon guinea-pigs or young rabbits. So far he is perfectly 
safe ; he may even take pleasure in watching the death- 
struggles of the victims. But if he, before throwing a 
guinea-pig to the cobra, administers to it some supposed 
preservative and notes the result, or if he takes away the 
bitten creature and tries in any way to cure it, or if he seeks 
in any manner to derive instruction from its death, he will 
be hauled before the magistrate. 
One more instance of this nature, and we must pass on : 
rats and mice are viewed in the light of convicted criminals, 
liable to execution. Everyone who finds them on his pre- 
mises may shoot, crush, drown, or poison them. If he 
prefers to use poison, he is at full liberty to seleCt aconitine. 
But if he gives a mouse, condemned as it is, some unknown 
drug with a view to test its aCtion, or if, in order to confirm 
the results of chemical examination, he introduces into its 
body a portion of matter extracted from the remains of a 
person supposed to be poisoned, direCtly every “ scribbler 
draws his penknife blade,” every stump-orator waxes red in 
the face with vociferation, and each hysterical lady dog- 
fancier shrieks out maledictions ! 
If any of our readers is a Bestiarian — Anti-ViviseCtionists 
do not greatly love this appellation — we would ask him 
whether he is prepared to justify these inconsistencies, all, 
be it remembered, the natural outcome of the Vivisection 
ACt, and of the agitation by which it has been obtained and 
is sought to be extended ? Can he, or can any man, seriously 
maintain that the higher the motive the worse the aCtion ? 
Can he deny that such instances as those given above are 
grossly inconsistent ? To the miserable quirk about “two 
blacks” we reply with the adage that they who dwell in 
glass houses should beware of throwing stones. Or, quoting 
a higher authority than Chief Justice Coleridge, we say — 
“ Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own 
eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote 
that is in thy brother’s eye.” 
A vast majority of Bestiarians think it perfectly legitimate 
to inflict pain upon animals with their own hands or vi- 
