SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
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We have no doubt that Mr. W. N. Robson's Principles of Legal Liability for Trespasses and Injuries by Animals (Cambridge University Press, 5e. net) is an admirable treatise from the legal standpoint. He analyses the complexities of the law and explains the different classifications of animals— whether " feme naturae," " mansuetae or domitae naturae," ferocious or harmless—with great clarity. But his book also has a charm for the general reader, who will read with delight at the appearances of animals before the law. The eases quoted by Mr. Robson are nearly all entertaining, from the time of the " canis molossus Anglice a mongril mastiff" who " ipsnm the plaintiff furioee et violenter impetivit," down to the time of the modern cat in the London tea-shop who no lees furiously and violently attacked a lady customer and her pet dog. We cannot resist making a quotation
"In an action upon a case for keeping a mastiff 'sciens that he was amain ad mordendtun porcos and that the plaintiff was possessed of a sow and that the said mastiff bit the said sow so as she died of the biting,' it was moved in arrest of judgment that the declaration was bad 'for it is proper for a dog to hunt hogs out of
the ground ; sad his biting of the hogs is necessary. . But the Court conceived the action well lies ; for it is not lawful to keep dogs to bite and kill swine. Wherefore it was adjudged for the plaintiff.' "
Though dogs are the commonest miscreants in Mr. Robson's pages, many other beasts will be met there, including doves and rate, monkeys and zebras.
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