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and crouched upon its haunches to make a spring at me through the 

 door. I naturally put up my hand and closed the door. The tiger 

 rushed at the bars of the cage and broke his teeth with fury on the bars, 

 because he was prevented from attacking me. I was not to be baffled. 

 I collected the seven cowards again and brought them into the house. 

 I then took the key, locked the door, and put the key in my pocket. 

 *' Now, boys", said I, "you ought to be ashamed of yourselves ; you 

 are not worthy of being called Irishmen at all. If any accident happens 

 the tiger will eat me first, key and all, and he will sup off the rest of 

 you at his leisure, so hold on by the ropes." We got the ropes on again, 

 and I cut the tiger's claw ; and thus I developed the greatest possible 

 amount of muscular work that could be got out of seven cowards. 

 After the work was over, a very remarkable scene happened. The tiger 

 threw himself on his back and began to purr, and he made unmistak- 

 able signs that he wanted me to come over. I went over, and he put 

 his paw with the claws in against the bars to make me rub it. He was 

 not satisfied with that, and I patted him on the head, and put my hand 

 to his mouth and allowed him to lick it; he also allowed me to ex- 

 amine the foot which I had hurt so much while operating upon him — 

 thus carrying out to the most minute particular the character given of 

 the gentle tiger until he came into contact with civilisation, given by 

 Martial : "Lambere securi dextram consueta magistri." 



It is impossible for me to go into all the details ; they must be left 

 for future development ; but I will say in brief that the principle of 

 least action, when applied to the limbs of a tiger, require two condi- 

 tions — one in the fore paw, and the other in the hind limb. In an 

 action such as the tiger makes with the back stroke of the paw of the 

 fore-limb, we have combined groups of muscles acting upon the arm 

 and the fore-arm ; and it is easy to prove by the principle of least ac- 

 tion that when the resultant of the great muscles, the latissimus dorsi 

 and the teres major, that act upon the arm, becomes perpendicular to 

 the humerus, at the same moment of time the triceps muscle must be 

 perpendicular to the line joining the olecranon process of the ulna with 

 the centre of the elbow-joint. The most powerful stroke that the arm 

 of a strong man can give is the back-stroke, as every swordsman knows. 

 The back-stroke of a guardsman will cut a leg of mutton in two. The 

 back-stroke in rackets is much more powerful than the direct stroke. 

 It is made by bringing the muscles of the fore-arm and the humerus into 

 co-ordination. All the efforts of the racket -player and the swordsman 

 would not produce this effect unless the law were followed, that these 

 two angles which have no connection with each other passed through 

 ninety degrees together. We have, then, the very curious fact that the 

 principle of least action in a tiger's fore-paw or arm requires that these 

 two angles, which have no relation to each other, varying in magnitude 



