The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-09-16
ANIMALS IN SICKNESS.


part OF tne1r history. Ter, When we
consider that animal life, though in
some species of great duration. is natur-
ally brief and liza bic to an infinite num-
Der of accidents without remedy and
sudden dangers unforeseen, the subject
of the last days Of the nobler sorts of
beasts has certain pathetic interest
No doubt all animals from the healthy
and natural lives they lead, have
strange powers of self-cure in case Of
accident Those whose profession it is
to prepare the skeletons of wild beasts,
large and small, for museums and
laboratories speak with surprise of the
number of injuries and fractures which
the bones exhibit, but which have set
themselves in rough but effective
fashion But the chapter of accidents"
IN animal life spares none, from the
stays which die with horns locked to-
gether on the mountain-side to the
locusts which impale themselves upon
the barbed wire of the Transvaal farms,
or the cicalas which rend their wings
upon the thorns of the mimosa. Death
by violence seems to be the rule in the
lower forms Of animal life, except in
the case of sudden plaques or changes
Of season. Only to the largest quad
rupeds has human fancy conceded the
boon of natural and perhaps painless
death; and the remote, untrodden
Jungle, where the elephants go to die.
lies still among the undiscovered
countries"
The saddest side of these millions of
unrecorded deaths, from the human and
humane point of view, is that the
creatures for the most part suffer I'M
aided and die alone. There is, how
ever, good reason to believe that this
Is not always the case, and that there
are many cases of animal sympathy,
and some of animal aid for animal suf
tering On the other hand, it must be
admitted that there is often a strong
and apparently natural impulse among
animals, as among savage men. to
hasten the death of sick comrade,
whichin some cases takes the form OF
deliberate and premeditated murder of
the sufferer If ever human sentiment
ut the sight of fellow-creatures' suffer
ing be analyzed the two emotions of
Pity is generally prior, but, except in
the higher natures, it weakens with
time. PITY" says Cobbett, lis not a
lasting emotion" and instead of pity
passing to love. disgust often becomes
dislike. after long contemplation Of
disease and deformity. The ruder the
state of society the harsher becomes the
law; for we may assume that the dislike
of the weak and sickly by the healthy
and vigorous is an indirect if most
unpleasing form of the law of
natural selection. Maternal affection
must, of course, be excepted from this
general tendency. So long as any
young creatures are dependent upon
their parents, the tendency of the old
is to give most to the young who need
most The devotion of bird or animal
varies directly with the helplessness of
their offspring. But we must look
the non-related, the conduct of society
to the individual, and of different
species to one another In so doing
we may find something parallel to our
own development; for domestication,
the animal equivalent to civilization
does certainly produce an increased
tendency towards the emotions of pity
and benevoience. But in animal COM
munities there seems to exist little
sense of pity when the weakness of
member Inconvenience or endangers
the safety of the whole. Bulls and
wild stations will fight for the herd
but that is the price of their own su-
premacy The wounded and sick are
usually driven away, and perhaps
killed The wild cows of Chillingham
Park, and the deer at Windsor, still
hide their calves and fawns. As in the
DAYS Of the Psalmist, the calving hind
''discovereth the thick bushes" and
does not venture to show its fawn till it
can keepu with the herd Shakespeare,
in AS You Like tt does no injustice
to the general indifference of deer 60
their niured comrades; and the stag.
cleft and abandoned by his velvet
friends" which excited the pity of
Jacques, suffered the general fate of
wounded deer.
But there are exceptions to the rule.
The scene of the wounded stag, at
tended By the kinds, which Sir Edwin
Landseer painted in his beautiful pic
ture called Highland Nurses" was, we
believe, actually witnessed by the
painter or his host But the Storch
Gericht condemns without mercy those
that cannot join in the southern mi
grafton; ducks and caDaries peck sick
and ailing birds 10 death, and pigs are
born DULLES, the smallest of the litter
the ''petment," as it is called in East
hnglia-being invariably bitten and de-
prived OF It's food. Carnivorous animals
rarely iniure sick or wounded MEM
Der OF their tribe, though wolves. when
pressed by hunger, deyour the weakest,
and jaesals will az once assemble and
tear TO pieces n wounded member of the
pack But we lately heard curious
instance of the instinct to destroy the
injured among the larger cats Some
rough ground in Oudh was being driven
by beaters, when cheetah appeared
before one Of the guns and Was badly
wounded. Another cheetah appeared
Immediately after, and came up 20 the
first. which IL seemed 10 urge 10 follo7-
II. The wounded cfeetah was unable
10 move, and the second, on discovering
this. sprang on IL, caught il By the
throat and killed il, and was shot as II
bounded away after this deliberate Hur-
der
Noukeys, with some Dots able excsp-
tons, are some degrees worss than say
age men in their treatment OF the sick.
On the nevv Jurnne cana AZ Delhi mon