HUNTING SURGEON.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13172, 3 February 1936, Page 7

HUNTING SURGEON.

RECORD OF TIGERS SHOT. A man who hunts tiger alter j>erforining delicate operations on the human eye was entertained in London recently. He was Colonel Sir Henry Gidney, of’ Calcutta, who said he attributed much of his success as a, surgeon to the fact that he can use his left hand with the same facility as his right. He has killed fifty-three tigers, and saved the sight of thousands of people. Sir Henry was the guest of honour of the Anglo-Indian Association, which wished to show appreciation of his efforts on behalf of 200,000 Anglo-Indians in India. Sir Henry said: “God gave me tlie wonderful gilt of ambidexterity. 1 •am prouder of my ability to use iny left hand with the same facility as the right than 1 am of all my tiger shooting exploits. During my student days J decided that to nobody would this gift be so valuable as the ophthalmic surgeon/’ This gift lias enabled him to perform 24,(XX) operations for cataract of the eye, the second largest number in the world to be performed by one man. Sir Henry visited England to become an eye specialist and postgraduate lecturer in ophthalmology at Oxford University for two years. Then he returned to India, the land of < birth. “If I had stayed in Eifccu.kd,” lie said, “J should doubtless have come to love horses. J returned to India. and loved elephants.

“Let me tell you my adventures with Mrs Khudum Kali, the best end dearest old cow elephant that ever defied a tiger. I have shot .most of my wild game, including two ihinas and three rogue elephants, from her back. One half of my day T endeavoured to devote to killing and the other to curing. Hut one day I had to perform sixty-two operations for cataract, finishing by the light of candles. ‘T had restored the sight of twenty-one people in a day, and felt I deserved a little jungle excitement. It came gloriously some little time later, when I had the rare luck to secure a tiger with my right barrel, and a second tiger immediately arterwards with my left. "L took up a position about a mile ahead of the line of beater elephants. The late Maharajah of Mymensingh was with me. I was hardly in position when my driver drew my attention to movements in the grass in two separate places. These movements seemed to be coming in my direction, and indicated more than one tiger. “The tiger charged out of the jungle about ten yards in front of me with a. terrific roar. I had my head on him and fired my right—ho rolled over dead. I had scarcely done this when with a ferocious growl out charged a second tiger. My orderly was on the point of handing me another loaded rifle, hut there was no time to change • so 1 fired my left barrel, and to my great joy 1 i-olled this tiger over too.” r -