St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-04-12
Insensibility of Animals to Pain.

DR.. w. Crollier writes in the Nineteenth
Century,: The careful observer of nature
must often be struck by the apparently
enormous amount of pain and suffering
inflicted on the lower animals by each
other and by man. The bird tears to
pieces the worm, the fly or the snail, and
is itself torn to pieces by the hawk, the
cat or the weasel, while these in turn fall
victims to the gun or trap of the sports
man. So it is with insects and so with
fish. There is very strong reason for be-
lieving that the lower animals arc far less
sensitive to pain than is supposed.
Although the general type of the nervous
system is the same in all the vertebrate
animals, it is well to remember that in all
the lower animals the brain is, in proper
ton to the rest of the body, very much
smaller than in the case of man. 1t ap-
pears, too, that those animals whose brains
are most developed and most exercised by
their constant intercourse with man, as the
dog and the horse, are more sensitive to
pain than wilder and less domesticated an
imals. In dealing with animals it is nee
essary to consider carefully what signs
may be depended upon as proofs of their
suffering. Certainly their struggles and
cries are not always true indications.
All wild animals struggle under re-
straint. With many, cries indicate fear
rather than pain. a hare when shot rarely
cries; when closely pursued by dogs it often
does. Animals when trapped rarely cry
until some oneapproachesthe trap. Frogs
will cry out loudly on the appearance of
anything at all resembling snake; when
injured with stones or cut by the scythe
in moving they rarely do SO. Every game
lxaa tyv hot :, Sc hir,ry
for rat or rabbit, when caught by the
gnaw off it's limb and so escape, while
other animals, when kept short of food,
will readily eat their own tails.
Another proof that animals are less SEN
sitive to pain than man, is their compare
tive freedom from shock after severe inju-
ries. When man meets with very Sc
we're injury of any kind, a train of symp-
toms follow which are collectively known
by the name of shock A striking pallor
takes the place of the natural color, the
skin becomes covered with clammy mois
ture, the eye loses it's natural lustre and
the extremities become deadly cold, and
while the ear may detect the futtering &C
ton of the heart, the pulse of the wrist is
often quite imperceptible. All these
PoiAb w O El0o' AcaoCc Va
the nervous system, whereas the lower an
finals often sustain the severest in uries
without exhibiting any of the symptoms of
shock. In man and animals the skin is
certainly the most sensitive tissue of the
body; we can hardly imagine that the
scales which cover the bodies of fish are
equally sensitive.
When we pass to the invertebrate king
dom, represented by shellish, snails, worms,
insects, etc, we find an entire absence OF
brain, the nervous system being repre-
sented by two nervous cords running the
whole length of the body, and having
pair of small masses of tissue, known as
ganglia, developed at intervals. The ex-
traordinary mutilations these creatures
will successfully endure prove that their
nervous system is but little influenced by
shock, and renders it almost certain that it
is equally inseusible to pain. When we
remember that the worm, when cut in half,
does not necessarily die, but has the power
of reproducing the lower portion of its
body, and that in some orders the lower
half develops new mouth, and becomes
new animal; again, when we remember
that other members of the same sub king
dom, such as Holsters and crabs, will fire..
quently when frightened throw off limb or
two, we must conclude that their sense of
pain is very small, and yet they are repeat
eddy spoken and written of as though they
were as sensitive as man.