The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-10 00:00:00

DOC7O.RING A PORPOISE.

On Thursday morning Mr. Bartlett was good enough to
send me word that he had jag receive a live porpoise. I
immediately went over to the gardens, and found the poor
beast well cared for, and placed in a small. tank of sea water
behind :the Aquarium-house. I immedia ‘tely perceived,
that the porpoise was " very bad ;" he was upon his side,
and every now and then turning his under silo'uppermost.
His breathing, or rather blowing, was hard atki laboured,
and his wonderfully constructed " blow-hole" akt the top
of his head was working with difficulty. I counted his
respirations, which were eight a minute, loud and po wee-
tul (especially the expirations), reminding one of a m.an
snoring heavily; it was quite evident that the porpoise was
in a very exhausted state. Now I, as a doctor, could not
help reasoning thus :—This is an animal with a fotea--
eavitied heart, warm blood, and air-breathing lungs; his;
system is much exhausted from a slow process of drown-
ing in air; in fact, it is exactly the same condition as a
human being would be half drowned in water. Reasoning
thus, I could not help advis'ng stimulants, and, having
gained the permission of Mr. Bartlett, we agreed to give
the porpoise a dose of ammonia immediately; but how to
do it was the question. There was only one way, so I
bray d the cold water and jumped into the tank with tha
porpoise. I then held him up in my arms
(he was very
heavy) _while Mr. Bartlett poured a good dose of sail
volatile and water down his throat with a soda-water
bottle. I then dashed cold water on him about every
ten minutes, to help the effect of the medicine. This;

reatment had some salutary effect, for his respirations,.
which when I first saw him were eight in the minute,
increased to 10, and then to 12. In two hours' time I visited
him again, and, again going into the water, lifted him up
while Mr. Bartlett poured down his throat a good glaLls of
stiff brandy-and-water; again the results were good—t.lae
respirations increased to 13 a minute. Perceiving that the'
water in which he was floating was stained with iblocd, I
examined him all over, and found a wound in his tail, which
was bleeding pretty fast. This I soon stopped with com-
mon salt. Seeing that, in spite of all done, the porpoise
did not get much better, Mr. Bartlett and myself agreed to•
give him another chance ; so we fished him out of his tank,,
and carried him quickly to the seal's pond, and put him
carefully and gently into the water. In about an hour be
got decidedly better, and of his own accord swam twice,
across the pond, using his tail with that peculiar motion
seen only in the whale tribe, He was, however, very blind
and stupid, for he invariably hit his nose against the edge•
of the pand when he arrived there. However, he was cer-
tainly better for the change and clean water (for his taili
had now ceased to bleed), and hii respirations were
thirteen in the minute, and certainly stronger and
longer. I was curious to take the temperature of his breath,
which felt warm to the hand as it came out of the blowhole
in a jet, striking the hand like the breath of a human being
blowing hard against it. As far as I could make the experi-
ment with a thermometer, its temperature was about 62 or
55 degrees. There were only two objectors to his being
placed in theseal pond, and those were " Kate" and " Tow,'
the two seals, the rightful inhabitants thereof. It was most
absurd to see them cut away in the greatest alarm to the
further end of the pond, turn suddenlyround, and stare up
at the poor sick porpoise with their huge eyes distended to
twice their size ; and then down again they went in an in-
stant under their house, shortly to reappear and have
another long and frightened stare at the intruder. I fear
the poor porpoise—who was caught at Brighton and allowed
unfortunately to spend several hours panting on a fis,hmon-
gees slab in Bond-street—will die after all, in spite of the
brandy-and-water and other treatment. He has had too
many hours' start of his doctor. However, the stimulative
treatment, I really believe, prolonged his existence, even.
if it would not save life. However, we have gained one fact
at least, 1. e., that it is possible to transplant a living por-•
poise to the gardens, and that he will live out of the sea
several hours. This is most encouraging to the idea of
Dr. Sclater, the secretary, Mr. Bartlett, and many Fel-
lows of the society, who are very desirous of having, ono
of these days, a live porpoise at the Zoological; and should
any gentleman residing at Dever, Folkestone, Brighton,
Southampton, or any place within easy reach of London,
be kindly willing to aid in procuring a live and uninjured
specimen (I should say tie him by the tail in the sea when
caught), Mr. Bartlett, or myself, if telegraphed for, will
run down and see if we cannot bring him up alive to
London, in the place of our sick marine friend—to whom
in spite of his present condition we wish a speedy cure.—
Field.