MEDICAL AND SURGICAL TREATMENT. 387 



' literally the fact,' says the narrator (Wynter), and there 

 is no good reason to doubt that it is so. 



A dog performed a surgical operation on a cat excision 

 of its tail, which had been nearly cut in two by a tin kettle 

 tied to it. The end portion of the tail was simply bitten off 

 by the dog, to the cat's immediate relief, and a loving com- 

 panionship was the result a fact significant to those who 

 erroneously apply the term e cat and dog life ' to unseemly 

 human squabbles. The same dog, when a kitten that he 

 was in the habit of teasing got scalded, and had her sores 

 dressed, gently licked them a common mode of treating 

 sores by and among the lower animals. By and by a tumour, 

 which proved ultimately malignant and fatal, appeared on the 

 kitten's neck. She got the dog to lick it as he had done 

 her other sores, 'touching him with her paw when she 

 wished to be licked, and again when she wished him to desist : ' 

 and holding up her head in order that he might properly 

 reach her neck (Wood). 



The oxpecker so called extracts the larva or caterpillar 

 of the troublesome bot from the backs of cattle in Africa 

 from the swellings caused by these bot-larvse and known as 

 ' worble,' ' an operation seemingly conducted with gentleness 

 and skill, and apparently relished as a relief from pain by 

 the subjects of the operation, the oxen evincing no uneasiness 

 or objection consequent on the attention of these birds.' Of 

 a similar kind are all operation for the removal of parasitic 

 vermin, such as lice, fleas, bugs, ticks, and the larvae of bot 

 and other flies, from each other's skins, furs or feathers. In 

 all such cases a double advantage is usually gained the 

 relief of suffering on the one hand, and the use of the captured 

 vermin as food on the other. Starlings in this country do 

 for sheep what the oxpecker does for the ox in Africa rids 

 them of troublesome larvae. The monkey searches for and 

 eats the lice or fleas of dogs, and ants eat up the parasitic 

 mites of drone bees (Houzeau). 



The lower animals give each other important aid in 

 various ways that do not belong to the category of what is 

 medical, surgical, or obstetrical, and yet are allied to this cate- 

 gory. Thus the phenomena of foster-parentage, described in 



c c 2 



