it may be presumed that he would not be, if he had reasonable
cause to believe that she was a boy. But if he knowingly abducts
a girl from [59] her parents, he must find out her age at his
peril. It is no defence that he had every reason to think her
over sixteen. /1/ So, under a prohibitory liquor law, it has been
held that, if a man sells "Plantation Bitters," it is no defence
that he does not know them to be intoxicating. /2/ And there are
other examples of the same kind.

Now, if experience shows, or is deemed by the law-maker to show,
that somehow or other deaths which the evidence makes accidental
happen disproportionately often in connection with other
felonies, or with resistance to officers, or if on any other
ground of policy it is deemed desirable to make special efforts
for the prevention of such deaths, the lawmaker may consistently
treat acts which, under the known circumstances, are felonious,
or constitute resistance to officers, as having a sufficiently
dangerous tendency to be put under a special ban. The law may,
therefore, throw on the actor the peril, not only of the
consequences foreseen by him, but also of consequences which,
although not predicted by common experience, the legislator
apprehends. I do not, however, mean to argue that the rules under
discussion arose on the above reasoning, any more than that they
are right, or would be generally applied in this country.

Returning to the main line of thought it will be instructive to
consider the relation of manslaughter to murder. One great
difference between the two will be found to lie in the degree of
danger attaching to the act in the given state of facts. If a man
strikes another with a small stick which is not likely to kill,