Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1914 — DEATH INSTINCT IN ANIMALS. [ARTICLE]

DEATH INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.

Cow Whloh Know Her Calf Was Dead In a'lMjrsterioua Way. ’ A Writer in the "North American Review*, Arthur Mark Cummings, under the heading, "The Death Instinct in Animals,” gives a case of what seems to have been "transference of thought" between a cow and her calf. He says: "The fanner who owned them kept the ealf in his barn, but drove the cow to a distant pasture every, morning with the rest of the heard. She soon became reconciled to the arrangement, and was accustomed to feed quietly until it was time to return to her calf. One day the farmer killed the calf suddenly and painlessly. There was no outcry; no chance for the cow to see the deed. She was at A distance from the barn, which apparently precluded the possibility of her knowing what had been done. Yet no sooner was tee calf dead than she left her grazing with tee rest of tee herd, and came up to the barn lowing and showing every symptom of uneasiness. There she stayed from noon till milking time, moving about restlessly as she had never done before. There was no communication possible so Jar as human senses could perceive between mother and offspring; yet there is no doubt that the cow had some dim knowledge, and that she suffered more than tee calf did.” Mr. Cummings gives a couple of other instances of what he calls tee “death instinct” in animals, one of which seems to point to “transference of thought” between a man and*a tortoise-shell cat he was about to kill. This seema to correspond with the mysterious impressions teat human beings not Infrequently have when their friends at a distance die. In our own case, we shall never for-/ get how, while riding on horseback as was our usual custom every evening in Newton, near Boston, we suddenly felt a terrible sickness come over us. We got back to our home as quickly as possible and told the good lady with whom we boarded that we felt terribly and- could in no possible way account tor it The next day we learned that our good mother in Vermont, more than a hundred miles away, died or was dying at tee time this terrible impression came over us. —Geo. T. Angell.