Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-03-30

From the Sunday Magazine Uondon).l
We cannot explain the grim fact of all
animal suffering as We can great proper
ton of that endured by humankind, by
showing that it is the just retribution 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 be-
cause the general laws which rule the bod
lily nature of animals are different from
those which govern the physical constitu-
tion of man, but because an unreasoning
is little more than a thinking and living
machine, actuated and impelled by blind
instincts. And the instincts of an animal
all tend in the direction of self-preserva-
ton. 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 q word, to
observe all the laws of health. So that as
a penalty exacted by nature for the infrac-
ton or neglect of her rules, this suffering,
which animals seem almost universally 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 a to
tally different standpoint. Instead of try
ing to account for the existence of this
seemingly widespread and terrible suffer
ing, let us boldly ask ourselves whether,
under purely natural conditions, it is a re-
ality after all. At first sight this may
seem q preposterous position to adopt
For when we consider how indissolubly,
s,,a h0It1x- IN, &c ;Al-
with acute suffering, it appears almost III
diculous to question the probability that
animals, which are so peculiarly liable to
the former, can be in any degree exempt
from the latter.
Yet, when we come to think the matter
carefully over, laying aside preconceived
ideas, and endeavoring only to ascertain
the true facts of the case, We find that
several most important arguments, bear
ing strongly upon the point under consid
Grafton, 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 given
injury by that which corresponding in
jury would occasion in ourselves. But
are we justified in doing so' For "pain,"
even in the human subject, is purely re-
lative term. 1t expresses very real SEN |
sation; but it does not express its degree.
And, as far as mankind is concerned, the |
sense of pain, in the intensity in which it |
can be felt, depends very largely indeed |
upon two great factors. The first of these |
is civilization. 1t is almost truism to |
assert that the white man suffers infinite |
ly more from a bodily injury than the sav-
age. His brain and nervous system, as |
the outcome of centuries of intellectual |
are far more developed and |
hirb1- ctr thot nr Ea1 Il
kin, who, in the course of long series of /
surgical operations performed upon pa
TENTS of all nationalities, enjoyed unusual /
facilities for forming an opinion, arrived
1t the deliberate conclusion that the sus
,eptibility to pain of an average European,
IS compared with that of the average ne
,ro, was as three to one. The stoicism of
he North American Indian at the stake
las often been adduced as a striking evi-
lence of fortitude under extreme suffer
ng; but it seems, as a matter of fact, to
De quite as largely due to dullness of the
nerves. And it is well known
hat savages of almost every race will en-
lure, and be comparatively unaffected by,
INJURIES that would at once lay civilized
nan PROSTATE. Witness, for example, the
horrible rites of limitation" into the full
privileges of manhood practiced by the
Mandans, the Maquarri dance of the ma
ives of Guiana, and the still more hideous
sun dance of many Of the North Ameri-
IAN tribes. And when we read of a Kaffir
aughing merrily at the appearance of his
)wn thigh, after a severe compound frac-
ure, presented; and of a second, whose
skull had been broken in by a blow from
, knobkerry, submitting calmly and with
,ut anasthetics to the operation of tre-
banning, and walking away afterwards as
hough nothing mad happened: and of
hird holding on his cheek, which had
,een almost entirely sliced off by blow
rom a sword, and yet yelling and shout
ng with his comrades in the full enjoy
nent of victory; we may not feel inclined
o deny that the savage feels, but We can.
Tot hold that he feels as we feel.
And the second factor is that of educa-
ion, which greatly increases the natural
to pain. The agricultural
aborer is much less sensitive of nerve
han the artisan; and the artisan than the
scholar and the brain-worker. And Dr.
Telkin, in the investigations alluded to
.bove, also discovered that the effect of
air measure of education upon q negro
vas to increase his susceptibility to pain
,y one-third. For education, which is
'nly civilization carried on, results in a
IT'LL further development of the brain, and
of the nervous system which
I
,reased intelligence is paid in increased
'ensibility to pain. So that an injury
which to the man of intellect may mean
positive agony, by the ploughman will be
lot only endurable, but scarcely noticed
It all. For it is the brain, and the brain
llone, that feels, although the actual sem
'ation is localized. Cut the trunk nerve
which connects the seat of the injury with
he brain, and the pain which that injury
81 L. 81 /
he nerves are as telegraph wires, which
the fact of the injury TO the
brain, and receive in return the sensation
which it experiences. And it is therefore
easy to understand how the degree of de-
relopment to which the brain has attained
Affects and controls the degree of intensity
IF possible pain.
When the sensitiveness of the negro,
with that of the European, is
put as one to three, what relation to the
after is borne by the sensitiveness of the
monkeys of the bird. of the reptile and
the fshs of creatures lower still. Ascer-
Lained facts, indeed, seem to show us that
BY the lower forms of animal life very lit
tie pain, as we understand the word, can
be felt at all Lobsters, for instance, will
deprive t nselves of their
great claws if suddenly .rmed by come
such sound that caused by the firing OF
a heavy gun above them. A crab. seized
while feeding by greater and a stronger,
will continue its meal while being itself
devoured. A fish, torn and mangled by |
the hook, will return in moment or two
to the bait, with its appetite unimpaired. |
A blind worm or a sand lizard, if unex-
pectedly seized. will snap it's body in twain |
and glide away, none the worse for the |
to reproduce the severed sub |
stance. 1t is hard, indeed, in cases such |
as these, to insist that pain, in our sense
of the term. can be in any real degree en-
dured.
THE AUGUSTA vICTORIA'S TRIP.
Americans Presented TO the King and |
Crown Prince of Greece.