2-74 TRAVELS IN 
having taken out the ball of the eye, and dried 
Its orbit with hot aflies, I- filled the cavity with 
wadding to fupport the eyelids. 
The moft difficult operation was the extrac- 
tion of the brain, which in the giraffe is of 
confiderable bulk ; and this perplexed me 
itLUch, as I was unwilling to admit either frac- 
ture or incifion in the fkull. At length the 
idea fuggefted itfelf to me of fucking it up as 
It were by degrees. This we accomplifhed, by 
means of a wire which I armed at the point with 
a tuft of hairs taken from the kroffes of my 
Hottentots, and which, thus converted into a 
brufh, was introduced into the bony receptacle 
of the brain. When the fkull was emptied, I 
filled it with hot aflies. The forepart of the 
head, from the noftrils to thofe bony excref- 
cences I have elfewhere mentioned, which form 
a kind pf horns tor the animal, required no- 
thing to be done to it^ fince it was not fiefhy ; 
io that it wanted only drying. 
From time to time I renewed the afhes on 
the fivin : I even kept up large fires for feveral 
days folio vv^ing, merely for the fake of the 
allies. Thefe operated at once by fhe joint 
iidlion of their deficcative and alkaline pro- 
perties. 
