1876.] Biological Controversy and its Laws. 223 
hunger and thirst, or to be devoured by wild beasts, as the 
chance may be. Can we believe that any person would wish to 
be thus “ saved from suffering in this world ” ? But^we need 
not confine our attention to the lowest savages. The ancient 
Danes, as is very well known, had a custom of tossing young 
children upon the points of their spears. Was this a6t, also, 
a species of disguised kindness, intended merely for the good 
of the victims ? Surely an innate moral sense which can 
allow such adfions as we have here mentioned, not to speak 
of what might further be brought forward, must be of no 
practical value. It is idle to say that savages do not approve 
of murder, robbery, and outrage, because they become angry 
if themselves or their tribe are the sufferers. The lower 
animals do just the same : rob a wild beast of his prey, or 
of his young, and your life is in peril. Shoot a peccary, and 
the whole tribe rushes upon you. 
Mr. Mivart quotes as an example of “ Savage refinement” 
the following passage from Sir John Lubbock:— 
“ Among the Greenlanders, should a seal escape with a 
hunter’s javelin in it, and be killed by another man after- 
wards, it belongs to the former. But if the seal is struck 
with the harpoon and bladder and the string breaks, the 
hunter loses his right. If a man finds a seal dead with a 
harpoon in it, he keeps the seal but returns the harpoon. 
Any man who finds a piece of drift-wood can appropriate it 
by placing a stone on it as a sign that some one has taken 
possession of it. No other Greenlander will then touch it.”* 
This is very interesting ; but we can give from our own 
observation a case somewhat similar amongst animals 
certainly not ranking high in the scale of intelligence. We 
kept formerly a number of vipers and other snakes in a pit 
something like a melon frame. If a live mouse was dropped 
into the pit there was a general scramble, and all the 
venomous inmates were seen snapping at the warm-blooded 
intruder. But as soon as one had planted a fatal bite all 
the others withdrew into their crevices, or coiled themselves 
up to sleep, leaving the conqueror to the quiet enjoyment of 
his meal. This we witnessed repeatedly, and can bear 
witness that it was not the largest or strongest snakes alone 
whose rights to their prey were thus left undisputed. 
But even if it were shown that all existing tribes on the 
earth had some notions of morality the question is still open. 
Mr. Mivart assumes that no tribes ruder and lower than any 
now dwelling upon our globe have flourished in primeval 
* Origin of Civilisation, p. 305. 
