248 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
may weigh 450 lbs. ; a *577 bullet of 650 grains, 
propelled by 6 drams of powder, has a striking 
energy of 3520 foot-pounds. This may be only 
theoretical measurement, but the approximate 
superiority of 3500 lbs. against the tiger’s weight, 
450 lbs., would be sufficient to ensure the stoppage 
of a charge, or the collapse of the animal in any 
position, provided that the bullet should be retained 
within the body, and thus bestow the whole force of 
the striking energy. 
We did all that could be done for our wounded 
men. The strength of caste prejudices was so 
potent that, although in pangs of thirst from pain 
and general shock to the system, they would accept 
nothing from our hands. I made a mixture of milk 
with soda-water, brandy, and laudanum, but they 
refused to swallow it, and the only course, after 
washing their wounds and bandaging, was to leave 
them to the treatment of their own people. 
One man was severely bitten through the chest 
and back, the fangs of the tiger having penetrated 
the lungs; he was also clawed in a terrible manner 
about the head and face, where the paws of the 
animal had first made fast their hold. This man 
died in a few hours. The others were bitten through 
the shoulder and upper portion of the arm, both in 
the same manner, and the sharp claws had cut 
through the scalp from the forehead across the head 
to the back of the neck, inflicting clean wounds to 
the bone, as though produced by a pruning-knife. 
They were conveyed in litters to the hospital in 
