1837.] Dr. Benzol s Account of the Dissection of a Tiger. 419 



perature is from 60° to 64°. A great advantage, which the Swan River 

 possesses to the Indian invalid, is its proximity, the voyage from Madras 

 having several times been performed in 25 or 30 days ; it is said to be 

 shorter by one half, than either to Sydney or Van Dieman's Land. The 

 society is good and respectable. The best period for leaving India is 

 February, as the intensity of the summer heat in both countries is thus 

 avoided. 



Among much other valuable information in Dr. Milligan's elaborate 

 paper, is an interesting account of the Aborigines of the country.* — 

 Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, Vol. 

 vni. p. vi. Appendix. 



Description of a Post Mortem Examination of a Tiger — By Dr.Benza, 

 Surgeon to the Right Honourable the Governor of Madras. — The subject 

 of the case was a fall-grown male, which died in the Government Park 

 at Madras. This animal for some days before his death had refused his 

 food, and appeared very ill ; his breathing was deep and quick, he was 

 hot and feverish, and his belly tense and painful. In this state 

 he remained for several days, never attempting to change his po- 

 sition. The body was examined twelve hours after death. The 

 abdomen contained about five pints of very offensive thin yellow 

 fluid. The abdominal and visceral peritoneum were highly inflam- 

 ed. The ilium for about three inches of its lower third was swol- 

 len, and converted into a hard tumour, having six perforations 

 through its coats ; the widest (more than three lines in diameter), was 

 closed by a portion of bone, and sharp pointed spiculas were seen 

 projecting through the other foramina : the colon and ilium were much 

 contracted. Within the swollen part of intestine were many loose pieces 

 of bone, and a round ball formed of several angular bits of bone, agglu- 

 tinated and bound together by a kind of net-work of hair and wool. 

 This ball adhered slightly to the intestines by means of an adventitious 



* The paper of Dr. Milligan, which, from the brief abstract given by the Medical and 

 Physical Society, (of which the above is a fragment), promises to afford great inte- 

 rest in its entire shape, must have contained much matter irrelevant to the medical 

 pages of the Transactions, which accounts for its not having been introduced wholly. 

 The author has promised to make over the manuscript to us when he recovers it 

 from Calcutta ; when that portion which treats of climatology, and of the Aborigines 

 of the country, will no doubt be found suited to our pages. Australia is an inte- 

 resting country, demanding enquiry and observation from all, but Ave have an ad- 

 ditional motive here, from the circumstance of its being so frequently the resort of 

 Indian invalids. Though it may seem, therefore, that we are, geographically, tra- 

 velling somewhat out of our way, to introduce accounts of this country into the Jour- 

 nal of an Asiatic Society ; yet we may do so with perfect propriety, as it is within 

 our bounds politically (being to the eastward of the Cape), and, moreover, has nume- 

 rous affinities to the Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and these, again, to the conti- 

 nent of India, the relations of which, to Australia and to each other, it is important 

 for the philologer and the naturalist to enquire into.— Editor Madras Journal. 



