228 BEASTS AND MEN 
their persecutors. Let us hope that in these civilised days 
such barbarous and cruel treatment would be impossible. 
Under enlightened laws the punishment would indeed be 
swift and severe for offenders of this detestable description. 
One of the most remarkable diseases which afflict animals 
in captivity takes the form of the infliction by the creatures 
themselves of dangerous wounds upon their own bodies. 
This peculiar complaint only occurs among the carnivores, 
but it is liable to break out in any species belonging to that 
order. I have had two cases of this self-mutilation in the 
case of spotted hyzenas, which up to that moment had ap- 
peared to be in thoroughly good health and very well 
behaved. In both cases these creatures all of a sudden broke 
forth into loud yells and literally fell upon themselves, tearing 
great pieces out of their own bodies. So quickly and so 
unexpectedly did this happen that there was no time to do 
anything to save them, and in each case the wounds inflicted 
were so shocking that the animals soon expired. Some 
years ago also a large jaguar became afflicted in the same 
way. He attacked one of his own paws, and so severely 
did he injure it that he had to be kept on a sick bed for four 
months and was not completely recovered for six months. 
Although I have never known male lions to be taken in this 
way, I have on two separate occasions observed it in lion- 
esses. These two animals both ate their own tails as far as 
they could reach, and as a result so much blood was lost that 
they both had to be killed. A tiger in my possession once 
did the same thing. He ate away half his tail, and it was 
only with great care and difficulty that we succeeded in heal- 
ing him. Although I have watched with ‘great care, I have 
not succeeded in finding any cause for these horrible habits. 
All the animals which I have here mentioned had been up 
to the moment of their seizure in thoroughly good health. 
They had not refused to take their food, nor betrayed any 
other symptom of approaching illness. The common reason 
given for these attacks is that the animal is suddenly pos- 
