Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals by E.P.Evans. William Heinemann: London 1906. 384 pages. including appendix with original documents, some in French and Latin. Frontispiece with tissue guard. Original blue cloth with bright gilt lettering on the spine. Not Ex-Library, Not Facsimile, Not Print on Demand.
Cover has bumping tp the corner tips, light wear to the cover edges. Front endpaper has a small blue ink rectangle where it looks like an old bookseller's mark was covered over. The front and back inside blank page is browned from apparently a high acid conent paper impression (two pages, see the photos). Generally, the pages are flat and clean with no dog-earing or folds, well I found on light page fold somewhere inside the book. The only previous markings I see, are an occaisional light pencil line in the margin, out lining a passage of interest, easily erasable. I erased some, but could have missed some. BInding is abslolutely tight with no looseness to the pages. AH20a
Can an Animal Commit a Crime? This pioneering work collects an amazing assemblage of court cases in which animals have been named as defendants--chickens, rats, field mice, bees, gnats, and (in 34 recorded instances) pigs, among others-- providing insight into such modern issues as animal rights, capital punishment, and social and criminal theory. Evans suggests an intriguing distinction between trials of specific animals or particular crimes, such as the "murder" of an infant by a pig, and trials for larger, catastrophic events, such as plagues and infestations. In the latter case, Evans suggests a parallel to witchcraft. Edward Payson Evans [1831-1917], a historian, linguist and associate of Ralph Waldo Emerson, taught at the University of Michigan before moving to Germany, where he became a specialist in Oriental languages and German literature. A prolific author, his other Animal-related books are Animal Symbolism in Art and Literature and Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture, both published in 1887. CONTENTS Introduction 1. Bugs and Beasts before the Law 2. Mediæval and Modern Penology Appendix Bibliography Index;