Altruism is the act of doing something for someone else's benefit, with no benefit for the person conducting the act, popularly known as being 'unselfish'.The term was first employed by the French philosopher Comte, to signify devotion to others or to humanity; the opposite of selfishness or egoism.
Some argue that true altruism must be an act that not only benefits another person, but does so to the detriment of the person conducting the altruistic act. This self-sacrifice is of course contrary to the basic principles of survival, and as such many psychologists argue that no human act is ever truly altruistic, but is indeed self-serving.
A typical example cited is a parent risking their life to save their child. In this example the parent is actually serving their basic instinct to protect the genes which they have passed on and are being carried by the child. Similarly, an adult risking their life to save a stranger, it is argued, follows the same pattern. The human race developed from a small family and as such we all share some genes, the stranger is part of our family, albeit remotely, and we are simply acting - unconsciously - to save our own genes. Other apparently altruistic acts, such as being kind to someone, it is argued are done with a view to some future payback. The stranger may help us in the future, or may help someone else who helps someone until the kindness goes full circle and someone is kind to us. An act which hopes for a benefit for the perpetrator of the act, such as a future kindness being received, or securing a place in a holy after-life, is not altruistic, but selfish, no matter how kind it may be. Research Altruism
Criminal law is the law relating to crimes. The general theory of the common law is, that all wrongs are divisible into two species: first, civil or private wrongs or torts; secondly, criminal or public wrongs. The former are to be redressed by private suits or remedies instituted by the parties injured. The latter are redressed by the state acting in its sovereign capacity.
The general description of the private wrongs is, that they comprehend those injuries which affect the rights and property of the individual, and terminate there; that of public wrongs or offences being, that they comprehend such acts as injure, not merely individuals, but the community at large, by endangering the peace, the comfort, the good order, the policy, and even the existence of society. In the first, therefore, so far as the law is concerned, the compensation of the individual whose rights have been infringed is held to be a sufficient atonement; but in the second class of offences it is demanded that the offender make satisfaction to the community as acting prejudicially to its welfare. The exact boundaries between these classes are not, however, always easy to be discerned, even in theory; for there are few private wrongs which do not exert an influence beyond the individual whom they directly injure. The divisions, torts and crimes, are thus not necessarily mutually exclusive, cases sometimes occurring in which the person injured obtains damages, while at the same time the criminal is subjected to punishment, not as against the individual, but as against the state. It is, moreover, obvious that legal criminality is not in any strict sense the measure of the morality of actions, though the legal enactment tends to enforce itself as a moral law. In large part it is only an approximate expression of the current sense of justice, this expression being both aided and hindered by the historical and constantly reflexive character of legal method.
The basis of the criminal law of Great Britain is to be found in a series of loose definitions and descriptions, of which many, and those among the more important, date from the 13th century. The irregular superstructure reared upon these consists mainly of parliamentary enactments which originated in the 18th century, but have been twice re-enacted in the 19th century - the first time between 1826 and 1832, and the second time in 1861, with an intermediary attempt at amendment in 1837. The laws as formulated, however, by no means always represent the law as interpreted, the whole system being further complicated by a mass of judicial comments and particular constructions. Thus while there is a statutory division of crimes into treasons, felonies, and misdemeanours, the distinctions between them are so uncertain that it is possible to regard the first head as merely the isolation of a sub-case of felony; while in respect of the second and third classes, the distinction can only be clearly marked by an enumeration of the crimes arbitrarily assigned to each in the common law and judges' decisions.
Even in severity of punishment a misdemeanour may rank as high as a felony. The Criminal Statutes Consolidation Acts - the result of a series of commissions extending over thirty years - accomplished little more in the way of systematization than the introduction of greater exactitude into the definition of certain individual offences and the gradation of penalties. The aim of criminal law as at present constituted, and since the end of the 19th century, is both retributive and preventive - in its former aspect being based upon the primitive passion of retaliation, in the latter primarily upon the fundamental instinct of self-preservation. The prevention of crime may, however, be effected in a threefold manner: by imposing a penalty which shall operate by fear to deter people from committing crimes, or by rendering it physically impossible for a person of known criminal tendency to repeat an offence, or by the reformation of the criminal. With the higher evolution of society the principle of retaliation has fallen into theoretic disrepute, though still a practical legal factor; and the problems of penology are made to turn almost exclusively upon the principle of prevention in these three aspects, and especially on the two last. The discovery in the 19th century that fear of a penalty only operated up to a certain point, beyond which an excessive punishment exercised a brutalizing tendency, led to a large mitigation of penal severity accompanied by a wide desire for the abolition of capital punishment, though this took almost one hundred years to be realised in Great Britain; while, on the other hand, various schemes have been devised for making punishment reformatory. These original changes in criminal law date in a large measure from the publication of Beccaria's Dei Delitti e delle Pene (On Offences and Penalties) in 1764. Research Criminal Law
Kissing is mouth contact with slightly pursed lips. Kissing and being kissed is pleasant partly because it triggers subconscious memories and instincts of early childhood, of feeding at the mother's breast and of feeding babies.
Deep kissing, in which the mouths are pressed together and the tongues probe within each other's mouths is a popular and common part of pair bonding in human beings and originates, probably, from the way in which mothers fed their young many years ago. In early civilisations mothers would chew food for their toddler and then feed it to them by mouth-to-mouth contact which involved pushing the food into the child's mouth with the tongue, much like birds still feed their young. Psychologically, kissing is a subconscious reminder of this feeding and being fed instinct - it is a relic gesture - and helps pair bonding between lovers. Research Kissing
Ant is the popular name for hymenopterous (or membranous-winged) insects of various genera of the super-family Formicoidea. Ants are found in most temperate and tropical regions. They are small but powerful insects, and have long been noted for their remarkable intelligence and interesting habits. They live in communities regulated by definite laws, each member of the society bearing a well-defined and separate part in the work of the colony. Each community consists of males; of females much larger than the males; and of barren females, otherwise called neuters, workers, or nurses. The neuters are wingless, and the males and females only acquire wings for their Nuptial flight, after which the males perish, and the few females which escape the pursuit of their numerous enemies divest themselves of their wings, and either return to established nests, or become the foundresses of new colonies. The neuters perform all the labours of the ant-hill or abode of the community; they excavate the galleries, procure food, and feed the larvae or young ants, which are destitute of organs of motion. In fine weather they carefully convey them to the surface for the benefit of the sun's heat, and as attentively carry them to a place of safety either when bad weather is threatened or the ant-hill is disturbed. In like manner they watch over the safety of the nymphs or pupae about to acquire their perfect growth. Some communities possess a special type of neuters, known as 'soldiers,' from the duties that specially fall upon them, and from their powerful biting jaws.
There is a very considerable variety in the materials, size, and form of ant-hills, or nests, according to the peculiar nature or instinct of the species. Most of the British ants form nests in woods, fields, or gardens, their abodes being generally in the form of small mounds rising above the surface of the ground and containing numerous galleries and apartments. Some excavate nests in old tree-trunks. One little yellow ant (Myrmica domestica) is common in houses in Britain in some localities. Some ants live on animal food, very quickly picking quite clean the skeleton of any dead animal they may light on. Others live on saccharine matter, being very fond of the sweet substance, called honey-dew, which exudes from the bodies of Aphides, or plant-lice. These they sometimes keep in their nests, and sometimes tend on the plants where they feed; sometimes they even superintend their breeding. By stroking the aphides with their antennae they cause them to emit the sweet fluid, which the ants then greedily sip up. Various other insects are looked after by ants in a similar manner, or are found in their nests. It has been observed that some species, like the European Red Ant (Formica sanguinea), resort to violence to obtain working ants of other species for their own use, plundering the nests of suitable kinds of their larvae and pupae,which they carry off to their own nests to be carefully reared and kept as slaves. Amazon Ants (Polyergus rufescens) often keep between three and five times as many slaves as their own inhabitants in a nest.
In temperate countries male and female ants survive, at most, until autumn, or to the commencement of cool weather, though a very large proportion of them cease to exist long previous to that time. The neuters pass the winter in a state of torpor, and of course require no food. The only time when they require food is during the season of activity, when they have a vast number of young to feed. Some ants of southern Europefeed on grain, and store it up in their nests for use when required. Some species have stings as weapons, others only their powerful mandibles, or an acrid and pungent fluid (formic acid) which they can emit. The name ant is also given to the neuropterous insects otherwise called Termites.
In the 1990's a new species of ant, in appearance the same as any common garden ant, was discovered in Budapest and in 2009 the same species was found in Britain, which has a suicidal attraction to electrical fields - an attraction which overides even the desire to eat. Like American fire-ants, these ants are drawn in vast quantities to electrical switches where they die and can cause failure of the electrical system due to the numbers of ants involved, typically hundreds of thousands. In Texas, fire-ants are a major cause of traffic light failures, being drawn to the switch boxes where they die and short out the circuits. Research Ant
The carrier pigeon is a variety of the common domestic pigeon used for the purpose of carrying messages. Several varieties have thus been employed, but what is distinctively called the carrier pigeon is a large bird with long wings, large tuberculated mass of naked skin at the base of the beak, and with a circle of naked skin round the eyes. This variety, however, is rather a bird for show than use, and the variety generally employed to carry messages more resembles an ordinary pigeon.
The practice of sending letters by pigeons belongs originally to eastern countries, though in other countries it has often been adopted, more especially before the invention of the electric telegraph. An actual post-system in which pigeons were the messengers was established at Bagdad by the Sultan Nureddin Mahmud, who died in 1174, and lasted until 1258, when Bagdad fell into the hands of the Mongols, and was destroyed by them.
Carrier pigeons can be utilized in this way only in virtue of what is called their homing faculty or instinct, which enables them to find their way back home from surprising distances. But if they are taken to the place from which the message is to be sent and kept there too long, say over a fortnight, they will forget their home and not return to it. They are better to get some training by trying them first with short distances, which are then gradually increased. The missive may be fastened to the wing or the tail, and must be quite small and attached so as not to interfere with the bird's flight. By the use of microphotography a long message may be conveyed in this way, and such were received by the besieged residents in Paris during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, the birds being conveyed out of the city in balloons. Seventy-two miles in two and a half hours, a hundred and eighty in four and a half, have been accomplished by carrier pigeons. Large numbers of these birds are kept in England, Belgium, France, etc and now called racing pigeons, there being numerous pigeon clubs which hold pigeon races to test the speed of the birds. These pigeons were also kept in several European countries for military purposes, and were used during the Great War and the Second World War. Research Carrier Pigeon
The Icelandic Pony is an Icelandic breed of small horse thought to have developed from European Forest ponies and Celtic ponies brought by settlers to Iceland in the 9th century. The Icelandic Pony occurs in various colours, stands between 12 and 13 hands high, and while normally placid may play up at times. They are sturdy and stocky horses with good eyesight and an uncanny homing instinct. Research Icelandic Pony
The lurcher is a breed of dog crossed between a greyhound and a sheepdog and originally used for poaching. They have keen sight and sense of smell and wonderful instinct, answering its master silently in response to hand signals. Research Lurcher
A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism - known as the host. The host derives no benefit from the parasite, and is often manipulated and harmed by the parasite. Many parasites use intermediary hosts as stages on their journey to animals further up the food chain, and in doing so will manipulate he behaviour of the host. For example, the malaria parasite utilises mosquitos in its journey to large mammals. Before it is ready to pass to the mammal, the parasite suppresses the feeding instinct of the hostmosquito, thereby reducing the chances of it being killed. However, once mature and ready to move on the parasite encourages the mosquito to feed more voraciously, inmproving the likelihood that the malaria parasite will be passed on. Some parasites cause their hosts to commit suicide by being eaten, or behave in a manner which makes them much more vulnerable to predators, so that the parasite can move up the food chain to a higher host. Research Parasite
The Scottish Fold is a breed of shorthaired cat distinguished by its folded ears which were the result of a spontaneous mutation first noticed in 1961. The Scottish Fold is a medium sized cat, rounded and cobby, broad across the shoulders and rump with a full, broad chest and a massive, round head set on a short thick neck. The Scottish Fold evolved from farm cats, and retains the huntinginstinct, being an excellent mouser and needing to practise their hunting. Research Scottish Fold
The snail is an air breathing gastropod mollusc with an external shell. Snails are of world-wide distribution, found everywhere except the polar regions. There are many thousands of species, with more than 120 British species, some terrestrial and some aquatic living in fresh water. There are also marine snails, of which the Periwinkle is a familiar specimen. Snails vary in size from tiny, smaller than the head of a pin, to tropical species with shells more than twenty centimetres long. Snails love damp spots and are most active after rain. In continued dry weather they retire underground or to sheltered spots, close the orifice of the shell with a film or epiphragm of dried mucus, and aestivate (remain dormant) until the damp weather returns. During the winter most snails hibernate.
The great majority of snails are vegetarian, though several British species are more or less carnivorous. Some snails possess a remarkable homing instinct, the common snail (Helix aspersa) returning to the same spot to sleep for the entire course of its life unless displaced by an accident.
Almost all snails are nocturnal, only roaming during daylight in the rain. Snails travel slowly, by way of wave-like ripples in their muscular foot. The lifespan of snails varies greatly with species, most British species living between two and five years. Snails are mostly hermaphrodites, and lay eggs. The edible snail lays eggs about the size of a pea with a white chalky shell. Some large species lay eggs as large as a bird's egg.
All terrestrial snails are edible, and were widely eaten in Britain before the Industrial revolution. Research Snail
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Altruism
