HAUGHTON ON DEATH OP LION AND OSTRICH IN ZOOLOGICAL GAEDENS. 93 



for the aid afforded by the people's pence, which furnish one of the most 

 important items in the income of the Society. The Zoological Gardens of 

 Dublin are the property of the poor, rather than of the rich, who seldom 

 visit them, except to listen to the music of a military band, and to stare 

 at a Viceroy. If the wealthy men of Dublin really care for the innocent 

 enjoyments of the people, let them generously replace the lion and ostrich 

 we have unfortunately lost, and enable the Council of the Society to 

 provide more comforts in the way of warmth and exercise for the animals 

 imprisoned for our advantage and instruction.* 



In the course of a conversation subsequent to the foregoing paper, 

 Professor Haughton stated that after a long voyage, especially from the 

 Tropics, on reaching the currents of air from the land of high latitudes, 

 such as our own, or, as sailors express it, on coming into soundings, it 

 is usual for invalids and wounded men to become worse, so as often to 

 die within a few days of landing. He believed the same influence of 

 the land air from the English coast fully accounted for the great morta- 

 lity among the animals landed in Liverpool ; and it had frequently been 

 remarked to be simultaneous among those from the same locality, as if 

 the mortality depended on the change, almost abrupt, from their native 

 air to the climate of Liverpool. 



Mr. Blyth, in regard to the contrast which animals undergo on ra- 

 pidly arriving from a tropical clime to that of Liverpool, stated, as 



* All readers of good taste will excuse me for adding here, in the form of a note, an 

 Elegy on the Death of our Lion, that was published, shortly after the reading of my paper, 

 in the " Dublin Evening Mail." Its author does not require any introduction to the 

 reader beyond the intrinsic merit of his verses : — 



" Alas ! another heavy blow 

 Has added to the weight of woe 

 Already pressing on the Zo- 

 ological Society. 



" 'Tis only one short month ago 

 (A fever 'twas that laid him low), 

 Death took the Lion of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 



" The keeper found him very low, 

 And sent a messenger for Pro- 

 fessor Haughton, of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 



" The Doctor came, with Foot not slow : 

 He found his patient but so-so, 

 And told the Council of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 



11 He wrote a grand prescription, though : 

 • R. Kinahan's spir : oz : duo ; 

 Aquae oz : sex, sumat Leo — 

 S. H., Physician to the Zo- 

 ological Society.' 



" They tried to make him drink ; but no 

 Teetotaller was ever so 

 Staunch as the Lion of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 

 " In vain they sought to urge the no- 

 -ble beast; that 'tumbler' was no 'go:' 

 He thought that whiskey-punch was 



'low' 

 For him, the Lion of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 

 " They watched his every dying throe ; 

 They rubbed him down from top to toe ; 

 So died the Lion of the Zo- 

 ological Society. 

 " Some said it was the frost and snow ; 

 Others declared they did not know ; 

 But all agreed that, high or low, 

 Than this there ne'er was finer show ; 

 This feast of reason, and this flow 

 Of whiskey-punch, so promptly pro- 

 -vided by order of the Zo- 

 ological Society." 



S. H., Sept. 24, 1864. 



