in THE ELEPHANT 61 



and probably extending the infection. A few years ago there was 

 an epidemic among the bisons in the lleipore district of India ; this 

 spread into neighbouring districts over a large extent of country, 

 and caused fearful ravages, but none of the deer tribe were attacked, 

 the disease being confined specially to the genus Bos. There are 

 interesting proofs of the specific poison of certain maladies which 

 are limited in their action to a particular class of animal. We find 

 the same in vegetable diseases, where a peculiar insect will attack 

 a distinct family of plants, or where a special variety of fungoid 

 growth exerts a similar baneful influence. 



Wounded elephants have a marvellous power of recovery when 

 in their wild state, although they have no gift of surgical know- 

 ledge, their simple system being confined to plastering their wounds 

 with mud, or blowing dust upon the surface. Dust and mud 

 comprise the entire pharmacopoeia of the elephant, and this is 

 applied upon the most trivial as well as upon the most serious 

 occasion. If an elephant has a very slight sore back, it will quickly 

 point out the tender part by blowing dust with its trunk upon the 

 spot which it cannot reach. Should the mahout have seriously 

 punished the crown with the cruel driving- hook, the elephant 

 applies dust at the earliest opportunity. I have seen them, when 

 in a tank, plaster up a bullet-wound with mud taken from the 

 bottom. This application is beneficial in protecting the wound 

 from the attack of flies. The effect of these disgusting insects is 

 quite shocking when an unfortunate animal becomes fly-blown, and 

 is literally consumed by maggots. An elephant possesses a 

 wonderful superiority over all other animals in the trunk, which 

 can either reach the desired spot directly, or can blow dust upon it 

 when required. All shepherds in England appreciate the difficulty 

 when their sheep are attacked by flies, but they can be relieved by 

 the human hand ; a wild animal, on the contrary, has no allevia- 

 tion, and it must eventually succumb to its misery. There is a 

 peculiar fly in most tropical climates, but more especially in Ceylon, 

 which lays live maggots, instead of eggs that require some time to 

 hatch. These are the most dreadful pests, as the lively young 

 maggots exhibit a horrible activity in commencing their work the 

 instant they see the light ; they burrow almost immediately into 

 the flesh, and grow to a large size within twenty-four hours, occa- 

 sioning the most loathsome sores. The best cure for any wound 

 thus attacked, and swarmimg with live maggots, is a tcaspoonful 

 of calomel applied and rubbed into the deep sore. 



I have seen the Arabs in the Soudan adopt a most torturing 

 remedy when a camel has suffered from a fly-blown sore back. 



