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great pain, ultimately producing death by gangrene, unless the claws 

 be removed ; therefore it is not an unusual thing to look after a tiger's 

 toilet, and pare the nails for him from time to time ; but it is not an 

 operation that is at all so satisfactory in the actual performance as it 

 appears at first sight. I have performed it repeatedly both on tigers and 

 on lions ; and I can give you as the result of my experience, that while 

 it requires eight men to hold down a tiger, five men will easily hold the 

 largest lion. This greatly struck me when I ascertained it ; and having 

 the opportunity of examining after death my two friends whose nails I 

 cut, I found, in the cross-sections and weights of the muscles, measure- 

 ments and proportions giving the tiger somewhat more than fifty per 

 cent, of strength greater than the lion ; which quite confirmed my ob- 

 servation. 



But the operation of cutting the tiger's claws was accompanied, in 

 the first instance that I tried it, with some curious incidents that you 

 might like to hear ; in fact, if they had turned out somewhat differently 

 from what they did, I should not have had the honour of delivering this 

 lecture before you to-day. I collected eight men to assist me ; we 

 placed a large rope round the tiger's neck with a stop-knot ; a certain 

 number of men held this, and the other men held the tiger's claw that 

 was to be cut, with a rope which lifted the wrist off the ground. They 

 were instructed carefully to keep the tiger's foot off the ground, for the 

 tiger knew well what they were about. He watched the opportunity 

 of putting the sore foot on the ground and slapping me with the other 

 foot ; but as long as the sore foot could be kept off the ground and his 

 head against the bars of the cage, he was compelled to press with his 

 free paw against the ground to save himself from being choked, and I 

 was quite safe. But, unfortunately, in the middle of our proceedings 

 his companion tigress thought she would interfere, and she behaved not 

 unlike the manner in which Jael the wife of Heber or Judith of Bethulia 

 would have done : she came over to see what was going on, put her 

 paw out through the bars, and struck my hat. I was proceeding to 

 cut the tiger's claw when I felt the paw of the tigress at the back of my 

 hat. In a moment, the body of eight men resolved itself into its com- 

 ponent parts. Seven of them were cowards ; but one was a brave 

 man who had led the celebrated charge of the Grenadier com- 

 pany of the 29th Regiment at the battle of Chillian wallah for the 

 purpose of spiking the guns of the Sikh battery, and was promoted 

 on the field by Lord Gough. He kept his hold of the tiger, but, 

 to my astonishment, I saw the seven men running like drops of mer- 

 cury in all directions. The tiger had thrown up the sliding door 

 of the cage, and there was I face to face with him. I saw I was 

 instantly to be killed, but my friend held on by the rope and 

 puzzled the tiger. The animal then backed to the far end of the den, 



