Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1892-05-26
20 ANIMALS suFFER7
Their Duller Senslbllities Arc Incapable
Acuta Bniu

of that endured by human
kind, by showing that 1t Is the just re-
tribution for personal or ancestral
wrong-doing. In the world of animals
the sins of the fathers are not visited
upon the children, even to the first and
second generation; not because the gen
eral laws which rule the bodily nature
of animals are different from those
which govern the physical constitution
of man, but because an unreasoning |
being cannot do wrong, and in this re-
spect is little more than thinking and
living machine, actuated and impelled
by blind instincts, And the instincts
of an animal all tend in the direction of
sclf-preservation. They teach it to
satisfy its needs, but without giving
way to excess; they preserve it from
over-indulgence in the bodily passions;
they lead it, in word, to observe all
the laws of health. So that as pen
atty exactcd by nature for the infrac-
ton or neglect of her rules, this suffer
ing, which animals seem almost uni
versally to endure, cannot possibly be
explained, And indeed, do not think
that we can satisfactorily explain it in
any way at all, unless we approach the
matter from totally different stand
point Instead of trying to account for
the existence of this seemingly wide
spread and terrible suffering, let us
boldly ask ourselves whether under
purely natural conditions, it is reality
after all. At first sight, this may seem
a preposterous position to adopt. For
when we consider how indissolubly in
our own case, bodily injury is linked
with acute suffering, it appears almost
ridiculous to question the probability
that animals which are 50 peculiarly
liable to the former can be in any de-
gree exempt from the latter.
Yet, when we come to think the mat
ter carefully over, laying aside precon-
ccived ideas, and endeavoring only to
ascertain the true facts of the case, we
find that several most important argu-
ments, bearing strongly upon the point
under consideration are nearly always
overlooked or ignored. In the first
place, we are very apt to fall into the
habit of estimating the pain inflicted
upon an animal by a given injury by
that which corresponding injury would
occasion in ourselves. But are we justi
fed in so doing? For pain" even il
the human subject, is purely relative
term. 1t expresses very real sensa
ton: but it does not express its degree
And, as far as mankind is concerned
the sense of pain, in the intensity il
which it can be felt depends very large
" indeed upon two great factors. Tn
first of these is civilization. 1t is al
:. most trusm to assert that the whit
man suffers infinitely more from bod
lily injury that the savage. His brai
and nervous system, as the outcome
r centuries of intellectual improvement
are far more developed and far NOR
highly strung; so that DIR. Felkin, who
in the course of long series of surgical
operations performed upon patients c
all nationalities, enjoyed unusual faci
tiles for forming an opinion, arrived a
the deliberate conclusion that the SUI
,eptibility to pain of an average Euro
pean, as compared with that of the "a
). erage negro, was as three to one. Th
stoicism of the North American India
At the stake has often been adduced a
A striking evidence of fortitude undt
extreme suffering; but it seems, as
matter of fact, to be quite as largely dr
to dullness of the sensory nerves. Ar
it is well known that savages of almo
every race will endure, and b. compa
stivcly N Affected by, injuries thu
would at once lay civilized man pro
trate. Witness, for example, the he
rible rites of Initiation" into the FIJI
privileges of manhood practised by Il
Mandans, the Marquarri dance of Il
Guiana, and the still more hideous su
dance of many of the North America
tribes. And when we read of a KAT
laughing merrily at the appearan
which his own thigh, after asevere COZ
pound fracture, presented; and secon
whose skull had been broken in by a biz
from l<nobkerry, submitting calmly a
without anesthetics to the operatio
of trepanning, and walking away aft
wards as though nothing had happen'
and of third holding on his chez
which had been almost entirely sli(
off by blow from sword, and !
!. yelling and shouting with his comra'
in the full enjoyment of victory;
may not feel inclined to deny that
IN, savage feels, but we cannot hold Il
O'i he feels as we feel.
IFS And the second factor is that of e
'er cation, which greatly increases
re, natural susceptibility to pain The
leo ricultural laborer is much less sensit
OF of nerve than the artisan; the arti
oo- than the scholar and brainworker.
me DIR. Felkin, in the Investigations allu
I'M to above, also discovered that the eff
re. of fair measure of education upc
TED negro was to increase the susceptible
Sed to pain by one-third For educat
tor which is only civilization carried on
lat, suits in still further development
'eil the brain, and consequently of
hen nervous system which depends II
vas it; and the price for increased
mes tclligence is paid in increased
Dlg sibility to pain. So that an in
It. which to the man of intellect may ii
you positive agony by the ploughman
lost be not only endurable, but scarcely
rom ticed at all. For it is the brain,
the brain alone, that feels, althc
the actual sensation is localized.
the trunk-nerve which connects
W ,s seat of the injury produced insta
uee ceases to be felt For the nerves a
'he telegraph wires, which communi
VI the fact of the injury to the brain,
i'ch receive in return the sensation viii
my experiences And it is therefore
II d to understand how the degre,
Inc development to which the brain ha
al tanned affects and controls the de
ehe of intensity of possible pain.
case When the sensitiveness of the n
W compared with that of the Europe'
'sels but as one compared to three, wha