98 FODDER. 



insuring a speedy cure. The deep, burrowing holes usually present in sore 

 backs should be well packed with tow steeped in the camphorated turpen- 

 tine. This stuffing prevents the wounds closing up too quickly ; the growth 

 of new flesh should be encouraged from tlie bottom, not at the surface of 

 tlie sore. A cloth steeped in margosa''' oil should be tied over the wound, 

 to prevent flies approaching it and irritating the elephant. 



Elephants occasionally become foot - sore from working in gravelly or 

 stony soil. An elephant does not limp, but goes more slowly and tenderly 

 when its feet become painful. Rest is the best cure. 



"N^Tien elephants require purgative medicine they eat a considerable 

 quantity of earth, kicking it up with their toes, and conveying it to their 

 mouths with their trunks. They usually eat from three to five pounds. 

 This is resorted to when they are troubled by worms in the alimentary 

 canal, and sometimes as much as 2 5 lb. weight of these parasites are passed 

 by them. Certain soils, usually black and impregnated with a kind of 

 natron, are preferred. Purging ensues in from twelve to twenty-four hours. 



The chief fodder of tame elephants should consist of various kinds of 

 grasses, which in India grow to a considerable length and thickness. But 

 where these cannot be procured — or too often owing to the laziness of the 

 grass-cutters, w^ho find lopping branches easier work than cutting grass — 

 elephants are almost entirely restricted to leaves and branches of trees. 

 This is not a natural diet : wild elephants eat but sparingly of tree fodder. 

 However, tame elephants become accustomed to it, and in many parts of 

 the ]\Iadras Presidency hardly anytliing else is procurable. 



There is, perhaps, no animal less liable to sickness than the elephant 

 if well fed. This point is of paramount importance, and without it good 

 management in other matters is of no avail. It is common enousih to 

 see elephants in poor condition, suffering from notliing but partial starva- 

 tion, being treated with medicines and nostrums for debility, w^hilst their 

 appetites are good, and they only require a sufficiency of fodder to effect a 

 cure. It may truly be said that all ailments to which elephants are subject 

 are directly or indirectly caused by insufficient feeding. Under-fed elephants 

 become weak and unable to stand exposure ; they cannot perform their work, 

 and are laid ojien to attack by even such remote maladies as sunstroke and 

 sore back through poor condition. The elephant, in common with all wild 

 animals, goes to no excess in any of its habits, and there is no reason, 

 except bad feeding, why the rate of mortality should be so higli as it 

 unhappily is amongst Government elephants in India. The actual work they 

 have to perform is seldom arduous enough to affect elephants in health. 

 * Prepared from the seed of the Tiecm tree, Mclia azadimda. 



