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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 174 |
The Times of India.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1882.
THE PROPOSED HOSPITAL FOR
ANIMALS.
A deputation of native merchants, representing those who recently set on foot the scheme for establishing a hospital for animals in Bombay, attended at the Town Hall yesterday evening for the purpose of meeting Mr. Justice Bayley, the chairman of the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in order to hand over to him the deed providing for the transfer of the hospital to the Society. There was a large attendance of native merchants and gentlemen interested in public movements in the city, amongst thoss present being Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Mr. Dinshaw Maneckjee Petit, Mr. Dosabhoy Framjee, Mr. Raghunath N. Khote, Mr. Goculdas Jugmohundas, and Sir Munguldas Nathoobhoy.
Mr. Justice Bayley on taking the chair called upon Mr. Khimjee V. Poonsey to explain the object of the meeting.
Mr. Khimjee, in opening the proceedings, said: Before I read and hand over to you, on behalf of the committee, the agreement signed by cotton merchants at the meeting in the hall of the Bombay Native Piece Goods Merchants’ Association, held on the 26th ultimo and presided over by Mr. Dinshaw Maneckjee Petit, I would beg leave to say a few words. The Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has done in this city really good work during its existence of eight years. The additional work which the society is going to undertake, namely, the establishment of a hospital for animals, is a very laudable movement on the part of the useful body. The example set by grain and seed merchants and muccadums some months ago in respect of devising means to support the proposed institution, has induced us, cotton merchants, to come to the aid of the society by making similar arrangements; and I am glad to notice that millowners, to whom we chiefly sell the commodity of our trade, have, many of them, expressed their desire to make a similar allowance to the society towards maintaining the hospital, and for carrying out the other humane objects. I believe that other merchants will follow suit, and when arrangements for contributions from various quarters will be completed the society will be in receipt of a handsome annual income which will enable it to do an amount of good to dumb creatures who have certain claims upon our sympathy and support. They as well as we are just the same in the eyes of our Creator. In all civilized countries of the world men have founded hospitals for men; but we the people of Bombay will be the first to set a noble example to the world by creating a hospital for animals; for so far as I know there is nothing of the kind either in any part of Europe or America. We Hindus are always alive to the necessity of providing for the comforts of the mute creation; but I must say before I sit down that the practical results which your society has attained are mainly due to the unceasing efforts of your able and energetic secretary, who, by his advocacy of the cause of animals has, as if it were, infused a fresh spirit in the whole Hindu population of Bombay. You, Mr. President, have always afforded him the benefit of your wise counsel and cheerful co-operation; and let me assure you, sir, that not only we, but the future generations in Bombay will ever hold you in high esteem as President of the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in whose tenure of of that honorary office the foundation of a hospital for animals was first laid. With these few words I read over to you the agreement on behalf of the committee of cotton merchants assembled here.
The agreement was then read by the speaker in Guzerathi and afterwards handed over to the chairman.
The Chairman then addressed the meeting, his remarks being translated by Mr. K. M. Shroff into Gujaratee. He said: Kindness to animals is no new thing imported into India by Western civilization. It formed an essential feature in Buddhism, and notably so when Asoka organised Buddhism on the basis of a state religion. Asoka, the great Hindu king of Magadha or Behar, who, according to the best authorities, is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the third century before Christ, in a number of edicts published throughout India, the grand principles of that faith. In Dr. Hunter’s most admirable work on the “Indian Empire, its History, People, and Products,” published in 1881, he says, pp. 145, 146, “Such edicts are still found graven deep upon pillars, caves, and rocks from the Yusufzai Valley beyond Peshawur on the North-Western Frontier, through the heart of Hindustan and the Central Provinces, to Girnar in Kathiawar in the west, and Orissa in the east. Tradition states that Asoka set up 84,000 memorial columns or topes, and the forty inscriptions extant in our own day show how widely these royal sermons were spread over India.” Two of these pillars must have been seen by every one present here to-day who has been on the Ridge at Delhi and in the fort at Allahabad. Among the forty edicts of Asoka thus promulgated more than two thousand years ago, is an edict (edict II.) which is, I believe, inscribed on the rock at Girnar, making provision for a system of medical aid for men and animals, and for plantations and wells on the roadside throughout his kingdom and the conquered provinces as far as Ceylon. As is well known, reverence for the life of all sentient creatures is one of the essential features of the Buddhist code. I will say a word or two as to our friends who belong to the Jain community. In speaking of the Jains, Dr. Hunter says that like the Buddhists, “they scrupulously reverence the vital principle in man and beast” (p. 155), and adds—“The Jains are a wealthy community, usually engaged in banking or wholesale commerce, closely knit together among themselves. Their charity is boundless; and they form the chief supporters of the beast hospitals which the old Buddhistic tenderness for animals has left in many of the cities of India” (p. 156.) The chairman added that the arrangements which had been proposed in the agreement, and the monies which would be collected, would be of great use in defraying the expenses of the proposed hospital, especially with the co-operation of his old friend of twenty years’ standing, Mr. Dinshaw Manockjee Petit. (Cheers.) The suggestion made in the paper read to the meeting that grain and cotton merchants and millowners should be appointed on the committee of the society, was one which the chairman said he would be happy to carry out; but he doubted if it could be done before their annual meeting in January or February next. They would add two or three grain merchants, two or three cotton merchants, and two or three millowners to the committee. He (the chairman) was glad to say that through the exertions of Mr. Veerchund Deepchund a branch of the society was to be opened in Sholapore. (Applause.)
A Banian merchant observed that as the native merchants were willing to contribute to this fund he thought that the European exporters ought also to do something.
Mr. Kabrajee pointed out that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was started by European gentlemen and had been largely supported by them.
The Chairman remarked that the society could not make people support the movement if they did not care to do so, any more than they could make a horse drink after it had been taken to the water. He was, however, quite certain that if they tried to exercise moral pressure they would be successful.
The Chairman proposed, and Sir Munguldas Nathoobhoy seconded, a vote of thanks to Mr. Shroff, the honorary secretary of the society, for his trouble in connection with the affair.
The vote having been acknowledged and a vote of thanks proposed to the chairman, the proceedings terminated.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW.
“THE THEOSOPHIST” (BOMBAY).
The present number is rich in interesting matter, which, whether one agrees with it or not, is good reading.—The letters of “A. P. S.,” originally contributed to Light, are reproduced. They are, perhaps, the most readable expositions of Theosophical teaching that we have access to.—The writers of “The Perfect Way” make a strong protest against what was a rather laudatory record. The authors evidently believe themselves to have been the vehicles of a new revelation, which must be received as de fide. In this opinion, however, they are probably almost singular.—Mr. Oxley propounds a long paper on what he calls “Hierosophy, Theosophy, and Psychosophy.” This, too, is a protest against a review of his “Philosophy of Spirit.” In it he incidentally claims to have had an interview with Koot Hoomi, which, however, that occult person promptly disavows.—The most important paper in the number is the third instalment of “Fragments of Occult Truth.” The claims made are the same to which we are now accustomed. A large portion of the paper is devoted to the same subject as is treated in “A. P. S.’s” second letter to Light. Assuming that most of the objective phenomena familiar to Spiritualists are caused by elementals or shells, a strong plea is put in, that such séances should not be held, both because no good can come of intercourse with such beings, and also because the intercourse itself is hurtful to some if not all the spirits who take part in it. The argument is forcibly put and contains some impressive thoughts.—Lastly we have a letter to the editor, signed “H. X.,” which shows that Theosophists are not all blindly obedient, nor foolishly credulous. It is a severe and outspoken indictment of the methods employed by the Adept Brothers in their intercourse with those who seek teaching from them. The letter is richly merited, and we hope good from it, though the editor receives it with uplifted hands as a piece of presumptuous sacrilege.
<Still the same
Conceited lot as to
‘The Brothers’ and …
… always
I am afraid …
… Members are … nice
in their own Conceit—[3]>
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Proposed Hospital for Animals. by unknown author, Times of India, The, Thursday, December 14, 1882
- ↑ “The Theosophist” (Bombay). by unknown author, Psychological Review, The, Vol. V, November 1882; separate pasted review under printed Psychological Review masthead. Blue crosses and an oblique stroke surround the review; several lines of its closing passage about the letter signed “H. X.” are underlined in blue. The writer has not been identified.
- ↑ Written beside the closing portion of the review. The writer has not been identified.
Sources
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The Psychological Review, v. 5, November 1882, pp. 457–458