THE KING OF PORTUGAL AND THE POPE 



freak, but one straight horn. The rhinoceros has been 

 seen in Europe and even in England long before the 

 opening of the Zoological Society's gardens. The 

 animal which was sketched by Albert Diirer was sent 

 over in the year 1313 to the King of Portugal. It 

 proved so intractable, or the Portuguese king appreci- 

 ated it so little, that he sent it as a present to the Pope ! 

 The head of the Church, however, was relieved from the 

 anxiety attendant on the housing of so " fearful a 

 wildfowl " by the actions of the rhinoceros itself, who, 

 "in an access of fury sunk the vessel on its passage." 

 In the year 1684 old John Evelyn " went with Sir 

 William Godolphin to see the rhinoceros or unicorn, 

 being the first, I suppose, that was ever brought to 

 England. She belonged to some East India merchants, 

 and was sold (as I remember) for above 2,000." The 

 price of rhinoceroses did not diminish very greatly 

 after the expiration of a century and a half. For the 

 first specimen acquired by the Zoological Society, in 

 1834, cos t no I GSS tnan I >5- Still later, in 1875, even 

 more was given for a rhinoceros. The original specimen 

 of a reputed new species, not now allowed as a species, 

 viz., Rh. lasiotis, cost no less than 1,250. This animal 

 from Assam was sent for specially, and only died the 

 other day. Its remains repose in the Natural History 

 Museum. The Gardens are never without more than 

 one rhinoceros nowadays. A large Indian rhinoceros 

 (Rh. indicus) was once the object of an interesting 

 experiment in medicine. It appeared to suffer from 

 simply a stomach-ache. The late Mr. Bartlett, daringly 

 experimentalizing, offered it eighty drops of croton oil 

 on a bun. The beast swallowed the dose, enough to 

 kill ever so many men, and recovered. 



