32 2 Vivisection, [July, 
formerly, in occasional specimens for museums, but literally 
in heaps. We do not mean to say that these birds are sub- 
jected to such prolonged tortures as are the seals. They 
are shot with the gun or the blowpipe ; but their nestlings 
are often left to die of hunger, and, above all, their lives are 
taken wantonly and needlessly. That most of the species 
so persecuted are insect-feeders, and consequently the friends 
of man, is an aggravation of the case. We love consistency, 
and therefore feel bound to record the faCt that one of the 
foremost agitators against vivisection has also denounced 
the practice of using birds as materials for the milliner and 
the modiste. Summing up the second case, we may say that 
whenever man finds any portion of the body of an animal 
saleable he thinks himself justified in procuring it by the 
infliction of pain and death, with little regard either to the 
urgency and importance of the demand thus gratified or to 
the exaCt nature of the means employed in obtaining a 
supply. The buyer, on his part, seems fully satisfied that 
his whims are of paramount importance. 
We pass next to the third case. Man makes use of the 
services of certain domestic animals, and in training them 
for various purposes, and afterwards in the execution of such 
purposes he inflicts upon them a considerable amount of 
pain. It is not to be expeCted that horses, asses, camels, 
&c., will of their own accord carry burdens or draw weights. 
Man, therefore, has recourse to compulsion. Here, as in 
the former cases, the pain inflicted varies very greatly in 
degree, which of course does not affeCt the principle in- 
volved. We must here point out that though the services 
of such animals are a very great convenience, they are not 
absolutely necessary. Mexico, before the Spanish conquest, 
was an instance of a civilisation without beasts of burden. 
Hence, therefore, all persons who — whether direCtly or indi- 
rectly, whether habitually or occasionally — make use of 
beasts of burden, declare, in faCt, that they are justified in 
inflicting pain upon animals whenever it may suit their con- 
venience. Under this case must also be included painful 
operations practised upon brutes to render them more sub- 
servient to man, more fit for his purposes, or more in har- 
mony with his caprice. The docking to which the tails of 
horses were subjected in the earlier part of the present 
century is an instance of this nature. Here, too, belongs 
the use of the bearing-rein, condemned indeed by a vast 
majority of those who claim to speak with authority upon 
such topics, but still very widely practised, and not likely to 
meet with legislative interference. 
