WOUNDED GAME. 275 



turned back to the base of the skull, before the vertebrae 

 is divided; this enables a portion of the neck to be 

 stuffed and represented in the finished specimen, which 

 gives a much improved appearance to the head. 



Wounded game often gives great trouble to secure 

 it, infinitely more so very often than the original stalk. 

 When game falls to the shot therefore (unless in the 

 case of dangerous animals) it is always desirable, both 

 for these reasons and for reasons of humanity, to secure 

 it as soon as possible. Very often an animal falls 

 apparently dead, but is only stunned, and soon after 

 recovers, rises again, and escapes. The first effect of 

 a severe gunshot wound, both in man and beast, is a 

 temporary collapse of the nervous system. As a rule, 

 unless bones are broken and splintered, gunshot wounds 

 give very little pain in the first instance, the sensation 

 being that of a severe blow with a heavy stick, and 

 any pain given is generally by the exit of the ball 

 (if it goes through) and not by its entry. Thus soldiers 

 struck in front by a ball while in the ranks, have 

 sometimes supposed themselves to have received a blow 

 from a comrade in the rear. A limb traversed by a 

 ball (without fracture of the bone) merely feels heavy, 

 numbed, and useless. We cannot doubt that pretty 

 much the same sensations are experienced by animals 

 as by man, under the same circumstances. 



These things being so, to a certain extent explain 

 what is called the " wonderful vitality " of some animals, 

 even after receiving a fatal wound. But did time and 

 space permit we could recount equally remarkable 

 instances, and perhaps even more remarkable cases of 

 it in the human subject. In the museum of the mili- 



