ANIMALS IN SICKNESS 225 
that, when they turn round, they twist round shortly on their 
hind-quarters. In these turns and in all their other move- 
ments the hind-paws are scarcely moved at all, so that the 
claws growing upon them have nothing to keep them short 
and grow to an immoderate length, while those on the fore- 
paws are worn out with constant use. The hind-claws thus 
grow right into the flesh, and, in the case above alluded to, 
they had not only grown into the flesh, but gone right through 
it and come out on the other side. When | bought this bear, 
the authorities at the Zoological Garden at Copenhagen had 
given up hope of being able to cure it; but after considerable 
thought I determined to attempt the following experiment. 
I had a large transport cage built about four feet six inches 
high and seven feet long and only one foot six inches wide. 
The front of the cage consisted simply of a grating made of 
parallel bars. Into this cage I drove the bear from out of his 
ordinary den. My purpose was to get at his hind-paws with- 
out either putting him under anesthetics or tying him down ; 
so, when once he was in the cage, I secured the services of 
the two assistants, who were all I then possessed, and tilted 
the cage over until the grating was at the bottom with the 
bear standing upon it. We next hoisted up the cage, which, 
with the bear in it, was not far short of half a ton, and rested 
it upon strong blocks, leaving room, however, for me to crawl 
underneath it. When I did this I could without difficulty 
tie down the bear’s paw to the grating, and it was then a very 
simple matter to cut the long claws with a pair of strong 
clippers. I pulled out the stumps of the claws from the in- 
flamed and mortified flesh, and hoped that after this operation 
he would soon become healthy again. In this hope I was 
completely justified. I transferred him immediately to another 
small cage, the lower half of which was lined with zinc, and, 
as soon as I had got him into this, I filled the lined portion 
of the cage with ice-cold water. The creature was thus 
kept continuously with his hind-paws immersed in the cold 
water. J kept a constant stream running, so that it was 
15 
