164 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



allow medicine to be given to it by its keeper. 

 A lady-visitor was good enough to leave a pre- 

 scription to cure the savage Indian wild dogs of 

 mange. But as she left no directions as to whether 

 the remedy was for internal or external applica- 

 tion, the dogs were allowed to cure themselves by 

 taking * sulphur baths ' in straw sprinkled with the 

 remedy. 



Domestication modifies, and often changes, the 

 instinct of wild animals to persecute, or at least 

 neglect, the sick or injured, perhaps because the 

 lessened strain of the struggle for existence leaves 

 room for sentiment to grow. Both dogs and cats 

 often aid their kind when sick, and strange alliances 

 spring up between pets of different species. Perhaps 

 the best-known instance is that of the raven which 

 Dickens saw at Hungerford, which used to carry 

 bones to a broken-legged retriever ; and the quick- 

 ness with which dogs learn that their master is ill, 

 and show sympathy, is well established. The follow- 

 ing anecdote of aid given by one animal to another 

 has not, we think, been published. An elephant- 

 train was on its way from Lucknow to Seetapore, 

 and one elephant, becoming lame, knelt down and 

 refused to go on. The elephant next in the column 

 stopped of its own accord, and when driven on, 

 turned back, and began, without instructions, to 



