FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   875   876   877   878   879   880   881   882   883   884   885   886   887   888   889   890   891   892   893   894   895   896   897   898   899  
900   901   902   903   904   905   906   907   908   909   910   911   912   913   914   915   916   917   918   919   920   921   922   923   924   >>   >|  
cattle, are seen under the domination of impulses, in some cases resembling insanity, and in others simulating the darkest passions of man. These instincts are: (1) The excitement caused by the smell of blood, noticeable in horses and cattle among our domestic animals, and varying greatly in degree, from an emotion so slight as to be scarcely perceptible to the greatest extremes of rage or terror. (2) The angry excitement roused in some animals when a scarlet or bright red cloth is shown to them. So well known is this apparently insane instinct in our cattle that it has given rise to a proverb and metaphor familiar in a variety of forms to everyone. (3) The persecution of a sick or weakly animal by its companions. (4) The sudden deadly fury that seizes on the herd or family at the sight of a companion in extreme distress. Herbivorous mammals at such times will trample and gore the distressed one to death. In the case of wolves, and other savage-tempered carnivorous species, the distressed fellow is frequently torn to pieces and devoured on the spot. To take the first two together. When we consider that blood is red; that the smell of it is, or may be, or has been, associated with that vivid hue in the animal's mind; that blood, seen and smelt, is, or has been, associated with the sight of wounds and with cries of pain and rage or terror from the wounded or captive animal, there appears at first sight to be some reason for connecting these two instinctive passions as having the same origin--namely, terror and rage caused by the sight of a member of the herd struck down and bleeding, or struggling for life in the grasp of an enemy. I do not mean to say that such an image is actually present in the animal's mind, but that the inherited or instinctive passion is one in kind and in its working with the passion of the animal when experience and reason were its guides. But the more I consider the point, the more am I inclined to regard these two instincts as separate in their origin, although I retain the belief that cattle and horses and several wild animals are violently excited by the smell of blood for the reason just given--namely, their inherited memory associates the smell of blood with the presence among them of some powerful enemy that threatens their life. The following incident will show how violently this blood passion sometimes affects cattle, when they are permitted to exist in a half-wild condi
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   875   876   877   878   879   880   881   882   883   884   885   886   887   888   889   890   891   892   893   894   895   896   897   898   899  
900   901   902   903   904   905   906   907   908   909   910   911   912   913   914   915   916   917   918   919   920   921   922   923   924   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

animal

 

cattle

 
animals
 

reason

 
passion
 

terror

 

violently

 

origin

 

instinctive

 

inherited


distressed

 
instincts
 

passions

 

caused

 
excitement
 
horses
 
simulating
 

bleeding

 

insanity

 
struggling

struck
 

darkest

 

appears

 

wounds

 
captive
 
wounded
 

connecting

 

present

 

member

 

powerful


threatens
 

presence

 

associates

 

excited

 

memory

 

incident

 

permitted

 

affects

 

guides

 
impulses

experience

 
resembling
 
working
 

retain

 

belief

 
domination
 

separate

 
inclined
 

regard

 
noticeable