150 DISEASES OF WILD ANIMALS. 



found dead with masses of foam at the nostrils, exactly as occurs 

 in the common "horse-sickness." The production of the malig- 

 nant carbuncle called kuatsi, or selonda, by the flesh when eaten, 

 is another proof of the disease of the tame and wild being identical. 

 I once found a buffalo blind from ophthalmia standing by the 

 fountain Otse ; when he attempted to run he lifted up his feet in 

 the manner peculiar to blind animals. The rhinoceros has often 

 worms on the conjunction of his eyes ; but these are not the cause 

 of the dimness of vision which will make him charge past a man 

 who has wounded him, if he stands perfectly still, in the belief that 

 his enemy is a tree. It probably arises from the horn being in 

 the line of vision, for the variety named kuabaoba, which has a 

 straight horn directed downward away from that line, possesses 

 acute eyesight, and is much more wary. 



All the wild animals are subject to intestinal worms besides. I 

 have observed bunches of a tape-like thread and short worms of 

 enlarged sizes in the rhinoceros. The zebra and elephants are 

 seldom without them, and a thread-worm may often be seen under 

 the peritoneum of these animals. Short red larvae, which convey 

 a stinging sensation to the hand, are seen clustering round the 

 orifice of the windpipe (trachea) of this animal at the back of the 

 throat ; others are seen in the frontal sinus of antelopes ; and 

 curious flat, leech-like worms, with black eyes, are found in the 

 stomachs of leches. The zebra, giraffe, eland, and kukama have 

 been seen mere skeletons from decay of their teeth as well as from 

 disease. 



The carnivora, too, become diseased and mangy ; lions become 

 lean and perish miserably by reason of the decay of the teeth. 

 When a lion becomes too old to catch game, he frequently takes 

 to killing goats in the villages ; a woman or child happening to go 

 out at night falls a prey too ; and as this is his only source of sub- 

 sistence now, he continues it. From this circumstance has arisen 

 the idea that the lion, when he has once tasted human flesh, loves 

 it better than any other. A man-eater is invariably an old lion ; 

 and when he overcomes his fear of man so tar as to come to villages 

 for goats, the people remark, " His teeth are worn, he will soon kill 

 men." They at once acknowledge the necessity of instant action, 

 and turn out to kill him. When living far away from population, 

 or when, as is the case in some parts, he entertains a wholesome 



