Chapter I: Bugs and Beasts Before the Law

Criminal prosecution of rats--Chassenée appointed to defend
them--Report of the trial--Chassenée employed as counsel in
other cases of this kind--His dissertation on the subject--
Nature of his argument--Authorities and precedents--The
withering of the fig-tree at Bethany justified and explained
by Dr. Trench--Eels and blood-suckers in Lake Leman cursed
by the Bishop of Lausanne with the approval of Heidelberg
theologians--White bread turned black, and swallows, fish,
and flies destroyed by anathema--St. Pirminius expels
reptiles--Vermifugal efficacy of St. Magnus’ crosier--Papal
execratories--Animals regarded by the law as lay persons,
and not entitled to benefit of clergy--Methods of
procedure--Jurisdiction of the courts--Records of judicial
proceedings against insects--Important trial of weevils at
St. Jean-de-Maurienne extending over more than eight
months--Untenableness of Ménebréa’s theory--Summary of the
pleadings--Futile attempts at compromise--Final decision
doubtful--St. Eldrad and the snakes--Views of Thomas
Aquinas--Distinction between excommunication and anathema--
“Sweet beasts and stenchy beasts”--Animals as incarnations
of devils--Their diabolical character assumed in papal
formula for blessing water to kill vermin--Amusing treatise
by Père Bougeant on this subject--All animals animated by
devils, and all pagans and unbaptized persons possessed with
them--Demons the real causes of diseases--Father Lohbauer’s
prescription in such cases--Formula of exorcism issued by
Leo XIII.--Recent instances of demoniacal possession--
Hoppe’s psychological explanation of them--Charcot on
faith-cures--Why not the duty of the Catholic Church to
inculcate kindness to animals--Zoölatry a form of
demonolatry--Gnats especially dangerous devils--
Bodelschwingh’s discovery of the _bacillus infernalis_--
Gaspard Bailly’s disquisition with specimens of plaints,
pleas, etc.--Ayrault protests against such proceedings--
Hemmerlein’s treatise on exorcisms--Criminal prosecution of
field-mice--Vermin excommunicated by the Bishop of
Lausanne--Protocol of judicial proceedings against
caterpillars--Conjurers of cabbage-worms--Swallows
proscribed by a Protestant parson--Custom of writing letters
of advice to rats--Writs of ejectment served on them--
Rhyming rats in Ireland--Ancient usage mentioned by
Kassianos Bassos--Capital punishment of larger quadrupeds--
Berriat-Saint-Prix’s Reports and Researches--List of
culprits--Beasts burned and buried alive and put to the
rack--Swine executed for infanticide--Bailly’s bill of
expenses--An ox decapitated for its demerits--Punishment of
buggery--Cohabitation of a Christian with a Jewess declared
to be sodomy--Trial of a sow and six sucklings for murder--
Bull sent to the gallows for killing a lad--A horse
condemned to death for homicide--A cock burned at the stake
for the unnatural crime of laying an egg--Lapeyronie’s
investigation of the subject--Racine’s satire on such
prosecutions in _Les Plaideurs_; _Lex talionis_--Tit for tat
the law of the primitive man and the savage--The application
of this iron rule in Hebrew legislation--Flesh of a culprit
pig not to be eaten--Athenian laws for punishing inanimate
objects--Recent execution of idols in China--Russian bell
sentenced to perpetual exile in Siberia for abetting
insurrection--Pillory for dogs in Vienna--Treatment
prescribed for mad dogs in the Avesta--Cruelty of laws, of
talion and decrees of corruption of blood--Examples in
ancient and modern legislation--Cicero approves of such
penalties for political offences--Survival of this
conception of justice in theology--Constitutio Criminalis
Carolina--Lombroso opposed to trial by jury as a relic of
barbarism--Corruption of Swiss cantonal courts--Deodand in
English law--Applications of it in Maryland and in
Scotland--Blackstone’s theory of it untenable--Penalties
inflicted for suicide--Ancient legislation on this
subject--Legalization of suicide--Abolition of deodands in
England _p._ 18