WONDERFUL OPERATIONS ON ANIMALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 55

WONDERFUL OPERA TIONS ON ANIMALS.

We hear so much of the marvels performed by the surgeons who cut and patch the human frame that we have ceased to He surprised at aught they do. But there I is a considerable field for interest in the efforts made to cure the poor dumb animals who fall victims to accident or disease. Many strange adventures have the surgeons had with animals in these circumstances, particularly with wild animals kept in captivity. The most hazardous operations have been undertaken to cure some suffering lion or some injured tiger. For instance, Nero, a star performer in one of the NeAv York shows, sustained a fracture of the right hind leg, an angry lioness having bitten him there to some purpose. He was worth money, and it was determined to try and save his life by setting the leg. The first difficulty Ava3 to get him under the influence of some ana?sthetic, and he was at length induced to swallow a piece of meat on which morphia and atropine were sprinkled. An hour elapsed before the potion took sufficient effect, but then he was bound to a table by stout ropes. The broken leg was extended and the bones joined, and then it was bound up tightly with wood splints, over which a plaster of Paris cast was made. The operation lasted two hours, but it saved Nero's leg. A still more singular piece of surgery was the operation performed on a fine male tiger in the Public Gardens of Trevandium, Bombay. The animal's claws were growing into his flesh, and one night, maddened by the pain, he pulled one of the claws out by the roots, leaving an ugly ->ore. He was put into a transport cage, in which a false roof, padded beneath with sacks, had been hung, and at a given signal 12 men forced down the false roof with iron bars. In this way the tiger was made absolutely helpless, and his paws were easily drawn through the opened bars. The leg to be operated on was noosed and fastened to a bar, and with a pair of clippers the offending claws were soon pulled out. Some of them had grown nearly an inch into the flesh, but the worst wound was that made by the tiger himself when he pulled out one of his claws. There the bone was exposed, and a hole 3in long was seen, from which 100 maggots were taken. Indeed, when this was found it was decided to shoot the poor brute, but the wound was dressed with antiseptics, and it was agreed to wait. Next day he was all right, and the other claws were treated, and every day for six weeks the injured limbs were dressed with antiseptic dressing, till at the end of that time he was quite cured and was restored to his run. Caliph, the hippo in Central Park, New York, was sick, and it was decided to give him a (lose of medicine. Nine men held him with ropes, while three pills, about the size of a tennis ball, were forced down his throat with a stick. They contained 2940 grains of aloes and 40 drops of croton oil, mixed with linseed oil and ginger. Caliph did not like the treatment, but next day he was a better hippo. When an elephant takes physic it is given him by the gallon, and one elephant which had influenza was dosed with ten gallons of whisky. But the elephant which had a tooth slopped has a much better claim to notice. He was in the Paris Zoo, and gradually became a prey to melancholy. Day after day he sat rubbing his jaw on the ground, and his keeper said he had toothache. A surgeon came and found that one of his teeth was sadly decayed, and that it must be stopped or extracted. It was decided to stop the molar. The risk lay in the possibility that in some spasm of pain during the operation the elephant might turn on his benefactor and kill him. But he seemed to realise what was being done for him and he remained quite still during the hammering and stopping, till at last he emerged a enriosity among his tribe ; ever af tei he was the dentist's good friend. A bold man once pulled two teeth from the head of a lion while the animal was only strapped to a table. His roars were terrible to hear, but both the decayed teetii were got out without accident, "and the lion showed his gratitude to the man. wLo

had done him this service by many signs of goodwill. In our own Zoo the doctor has attended more elephants than any other animals, but at one time he has been in attendance on a browD bear suffering from hemorrhage of the stomach, a stork with a broken leg. a wolf which had bitten its tongue in half and had nearly bled to death, and a lot of monkeys in various stages of asthma and consumption. The stork's leg was put in splints, the wolfs tongue was stitched, but the bear would not take his syrup, and little could- be clone for him. Among the domestic animals strange cases are sometimes recorded. Bad-sighted poodles have been fitted with spectacles and cows with wooden legs. At Sunderland Infirmary one day a lad presented himself, carrying a big torn cat' with a fishhook in his paw. The cat was very savage, and nothing could be done with him till the surgeon decided to try what chloroform would do. The beast was put under the influence of the drug, and the hook was removed, greatly to the lad's relief. Perhaps the funniest incident of this kind was tlie visit of a little boy to a wellknown surgeon, with a pet white rat in his arms. The rat had got its tail in a trap, and the appendage was badly damaged, but the doctor was able to repair it, and the boy in his gratitude offered the benefactor a penny for > his fee. Dogs are generally the best patients, and often have a lively sense of gratitude. Some years ago a black Gordon setter appeared at the Queen's Hospital. Birmingham, and held up piteously in the porter's face a crushed paw. The porter called one of the surgeons and the injured member was dressed without a whimper from the dog, who showed his gratitude when he was well bytaking up his quarters at the institution.