NOTE-BOOK OF A NATUEALIST. 119 



Ca^vnpoor, was attracted by the dreadful groans of one 

 of the baggage-camels. He went to the spot and found 

 that two of the camel-drivers had bound its legs in a 

 kneeling posture, so that it could not stir, and were burn- 

 ing it with hot irons in all the fleshy and cartilaginous 

 parts of its body. The good bishop inquired what they 

 were doing, and was answered that the camel had a fever 

 and wind, and would die if they did not so treat it ; and 

 die it did, after all, secundum artem. Our French 

 neighbours love to be systematic, and thus classify the 

 helpers of men : Le 77iedecin qui guerit — he is very rare ; 

 Le medecin qui attend la guerison — much more com- 

 mon, but still comparatively rare; and Le r)iedecin qui 

 tue. The camel -doctors appear to have belonged to the 

 last and most numerous class, though the treatment 

 seems to have been somewhat similar to that practised 

 on Rodin, for cholera, with success. Immersion in water 

 seems to be most injurious to the camel ; and after being 

 compelled to pass through rivers, disease frequently 

 supervenes. It also appears to be liable to intoxication 

 without drinking stimulating liquors. ' Several of our 

 camels," says Dr. Oudney, ' are drunk to-day. Their eyes 

 are heavy, and want animation ; gait staggering, and 

 every now and then falling as a man in a state of intoxi- 

 cation.' This arose, according to the doctor, from eating 

 dates after drinking water; and he accounts for the 

 effect on the animal by the probable passing of the fruit 

 into the spirituous fermentation in its stomach — that 

 wonderful stomach, which contains a series of reservoirs 

 to enable the desert ship to pursue its voyage over the 

 trackless and arid sands. Yes, it is so. Doubts have 

 been entertained upon the authority of a celebrated 

 name, for it has been stated by a distinguished compara- 

 tive anatomist,* that John Hunter did not give credit to 



* Sir Everarcl Home. 



