THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 187 



fested itself. The Council were charged with selling the 

 animal to fill the coffers of the Society, and their conduct 

 was compared to that of American slave-dealers. Said one 

 leader-writer : 



When the bid arrived the Council was in session, Professor Flower in 

 the chair, and Dr. Sclater ready to record the bargain. The scene 

 reminds us of Mr. Selby disposing of Uncle Tom. . . . When a Southern 

 slave owner put in force his legal right of separating a family at the 

 auction block the world rang with anathemas against the inhumanity of 

 the deed. Surely to tear this aged brute from a home to which he is 

 attached, and from associates who have so markedly displayed their 

 affection for him, is scarcely less cruel. 



Another writer dwelt on the "almost human distress of 

 the poor animal at the attempted separation of him from his 

 home and his family." This note was sustained in other 

 quarters, and it became the fashion to write of Alice as 

 " Jumbo's little wife " — no doubt on account of the baseless 

 rumour that she was in calf. A similar story, equally un- 

 founded, was told of another elephant. In the Times of 

 February 4, the "interesting announcement" was made, on 

 the authority of Land and Water, that " one of the young 

 Indian elephants is shortly expected to be the mother of the 

 first elephant ever known to be born in Europe — at any rate, 

 in modern times." 



On February 21 Dr. Sclater published a temperate state- 

 ment of the case, which was inserted in the leading morning 

 papers. It set forth the facts that " male elephants, when 

 they arrive at the adult stage, are periodically liable to fits of 

 uncertain temper," and that " the risk of an outbreak on the 

 part of so huge and powerful an animal in the much fre- 

 quented Gardens of the Society was not one which should be 

 lightly run." One would think this would be held to justify 

 the declaration that " the Council would not have consented 

 to part with the animal unless satisfactory reasons for so doing 

 had been placed before them by the responsible executive of 

 the Gardens." Some of the Fellows thought it did not. 



The Council, however, had their supporters. A letter from 

 " A. B." was printed in the Times of February 23. He said that 



