Surgical operation. 169 



an elephant in the Government stud, which was suffering 

 from a deep, burrowing sore in the back, just over the 

 back-bone, and this had long resisted the treatment 

 ordinarily employed. He recommended the use of the 

 knife, that vent might be given to the accumulated 

 matter, but no one of the attendants was competent to 

 undertake the operation. " Being assured," he continues, 

 " that the creature would behave well, I undertook it 

 myself The elephant was not bound, but was made to 

 kneel down at his keeper's command — and with an am- 

 putating knife, using all my force, I made the incision 

 required through the tough integuments. The elephant 

 did not flinch, but rather inclined towards me when 

 using the knife ; and merely uttered a low, and as it were 

 suppressed, groan. In short, he behaved as like a human 

 being as possible, as if conscious (as I believe he was), 

 that the operation was for his good, and the pain 

 unavoidable." ^ 



Obedience to the orders of his keepers is not, however, 

 to be assumed as the result of a uniform perception of 

 the object to be attained by compliance ; and we can- 

 not but remember the touching incident which took 

 place during the slaughter of the elephant at Exeter 

 Change in 1826, when, after receiving ineffectually up- 

 wards of 120 balls in various parts of his body, he 

 turned his face to his assailants on hearing the voice of 



' The Angler in the Lake District, derived from a solution of nitrate of 



p. 23. A similar story is told in the silver, and voluntarily offered its eye 



Memoir of Bishop U'ilsoji, of an ele- for a re-application of the remedy, on a 



phant which when suffering with oph- second visit of the surgeon, 

 thalmia had experienced the relief 



