148 



SOME TROPICAL TRAUMATISMS 



des chairs, Myalgies traumatherigenes (French). Under the defini- 

 tion ' Traumatisms caused by the larger Carnivora ' we refer especi- 

 ally to the injuries inflicted by the bites, rends, and scratches pro- 

 duced by the teeth and claws of species belonging to the families 

 Felidse and Ursidae. 



In the Felidae are Felis leo Linnaeus, whose habitat is Africa and 

 Asia; F. tigris Linnaeus, habitat Asia; F. pardus Linnaeus, habitat 

 India; F. leopardus, habitat Africa; F. onca Linnaeus, habitat South 

 America; F. pardalis Linnaeus, habitat South America. These 



^ I S I 



cats have a general dental formula, ' ' giving thirty teeth 



3. I. 2, 1 



for the whole mouth, which include the most perfect types of carnas- 

 sial teeth capable of producing exceedingly severe lacerations. 

 These animals feed not merely on the fresh prey which they have 

 recently slain, but also on its body for a day or so after its death. 

 Their maws and claws, therefore, become exceedingly foul, being 

 infected with micro-organisms and their toxins, and hence the great 

 danger of septic intoxication and infection, which markedly increases, 

 the gravity of the injuries inflicted. 



The other family, Ursidae, includes the bears which are found in 

 India and Ceylon — e.g., Ursus torquatus, of the Himalayas, and 



U. malayanus. Their dental formula is o' t a' ^ = forty-two 



teeth in the mouth, but these do not include carnassial teeth, which, 

 added to the facts that they are not as a rule such foul feeders and 

 often eat vegetal foods, causes their bites to be not quite so serious 

 from a septic point of view as those of the Felidae. Their claws, 

 however, may produce most serious effects of both a traumatic and 

 of a septic nature. 



The importance of the septicity of these wounds has been well 

 appreciated from the earliest times, for in the fifth book of his 

 ' De Medicina ' Celsus remarks with regard to the bites of men, 

 apes, dogs, and ferocious animals, ' Omnis autem fere morsus habet 

 quoddam virus,' and on this he based his treatment. This state- 

 ment has been quoted again and again in the centuries which have 

 passed since the days of Celsus: for example, by Morgagni, when 

 investigating the serious illness produced in a young lady, by the 

 peck of a sparrow inflicted on a finger, and by Heist er, of Helmstadt, 

 in the section on bites in his * System of Surgery,' published in 1739. 



It is of course possible for any person of any age and either sex 

 to be the victim of wounds inflicted by these animals, but the 

 persons most frequently injured are hunters (shikaris) and sports- 

 men, while the district postmen in jungle regions run great risk, as 

 do shepherds and, to a less extent, herdsmen, and to a stiU less extent 

 cultivators and villagers living in lonely places in the bush or jungle. 

 The present writers have also encountered wild animals under un- 

 expected circumstances during their journeys into the interior of 

 Africa; but the risk, which an ordinary traveller with his gan^ of 

 porters runs is relatively small, particularly if he has some slight 



