ANIMAL NOTABLES 189 



LION-GRATITUDE 



In your article " Androcles and the Lion " (Spectator, 

 June 29) great doubt is thrown on the truth of the classic 

 tale, but I venture to think that the following facts tend 

 to show that there may have been a very solid foundation 

 of truth in the story of the lion's devotion. Early in the 

 " forties " of the nineteenth century a lion or lioness in 

 the Dublin Zoological Gardens was discovered to be suffer- 

 ing from the effects of an ingrowing claw nail. Matters 

 had reached a serious pitch when, I think, the late 

 Professor Haughton, Head of Trinity College, became 

 interested in the case, and, in conjunction with the 

 keeper, arranged to attempt an operation, the step having 

 the full sanction of the authorities, who knew that, unless 

 professional skill could effect a cure, the life of a valuable 

 specimen would be sacrificed. A second iron barred 

 screen was arranged in front of a portion of the solid iron 

 gratings of the invalid's cage, and, after many efforts, on 

 the appointed morning the animal was roused and the 

 damaged paw drawn through the bars. As if aware that 

 steps to alleviate its sufferings were in progress, the great 

 creature was wonderfully tranquil, and allowed the 

 surgeon to cut out the offending nail and remove the 

 diseased flesh in the immediate vicinity without the 

 awful struggles which had been anticipated and prepared 

 for. The operation concluded, the restraining ropes were 

 removed and the great creature retired to lick its wounds, 

 in no very placid mood. Two days after the surgeon 

 returned to see how matters stood, and to his intense 

 surprise was recognized by the patient, not as an enemy, 

 but as a friend ! Stalking up to the side of the cage, the 

 lion purred loudly, rubbing its sides against the bars, 

 waving and arching its tail after the manner of the 

 domestic cat as it passed and repassed in front of its 

 benefactor. Nor was its gratitude of a transitory nature. 



