The Davenport daily gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1869, 1857-02-24
THE DAILY GAZETTE.
!, WISeFTLANEODS.
HORNED RATS

HOkNED MA Id.
We take the following from. the
Paris correspondent Of the Boston
Atlas:
Since have yentuied into the IRE
cincts Of the Court house want to
teu yon the Judges have had before
them q Monk barns; his Dousterswivel
mas . :. xouavsl "Messieurs,' ? said
our Monkbarns, ''thatnnan," "(pointing
to the xouave, ''hss shamefully abus
"a my confidence. He knows ! am
9 great amateur OF fossils, medals,
shells, rare animals, and curious plants
one day he came to me, saying, Mon
sisur, have species Of animal men
toned by no naturalist What is
thatp The rat with horn Heinz
"A rat with q horn on his nose, like a
rhinoc,ros. Have you one alive
Certainly, ii you will come and see
me, I'll show it to YOU Go ahead,
I'll follow YOU followed him, te-
ysred with impatisnce to see that
strange animal. When We reached
his house he showed me q large live
" rat, which really had upon its nose
q sort of excrescence, covered with fur
ss the rest of the animals body, ver-
tsbrated, and (strange to say, larger
at the summit than at the base, con
trary to the natural order Of things, -
saked him to let me examine this
phenomenon; he took it out of the
cage, placed it In my hands, held its
mouth that l might closely examine
this extraordinary horn. ! asked
myself ifI was not the dupe OF joke
to assure myself, took pin and
punctured the horn; the rat sqnealed,
writhed, and drop Of blood flowed
from the puncture; the experiment
was conclusive, the horn was really
portion Of the rats body. Amazed
and delighted, I asked the man if he
would eel! me the rat; he told me that
] might have it for fifty francss !
paid the money and carried the rat
home. gave large party, inviting
friends and sauans to come and see it;
everybody screamed with delight and
wonder; ] was enchanted. One OF
nv friends said to me-'You ought
to get female'-my rat was male.
went to see the man from whom |
bought the rat, and asked him for
fmsls. Nothing easier, 'saidhe, 4
wrote to my friends in Africa some
time ago, and they have sent me seE-
sral horned rats, two Of which are fe
malss.' He took downa cage full Of
horned rats; ! selected female, for
which paid 5Of, and returned home
more delighted than ever. | placed
the rata together; in a few months the
fsmale brought forth plentiful brood
but none of them had horns. | said
to myself-It is doubtless with the
horned rats as with elephants, and as
the latter's tusks appear some months
SITTER birth, the rats horns will appear
in the course of time. ! waited one
month. two, three, four, five, six
Notwithstanding the rats noses
with . microscope, every day-but no
horn appeared. 1 met, towards the
end of the sixth month, an officer Of
the army, long stationed in Africa.--
! said to him:-'Monsieur, you have
lived long while in Africa; tell me
if you please, did you ever hear Of
horned ratsl' Certainly replied he,
i have seen hundreds and hundreds
Of them Then yon will be aide to
solve my doubts Thsreupon, l told
my story. ! had no sooner ended,
thsn he laughed az if he would have
split his sides. said to myself
have been cheated; there is no mis-
take now; and when he became calm-
er, / begged him to explain the cacse
Of his merriment The horned rat,
said he. is not lusus natunae-it is
production, an invention, due to the
leisure hours OF our zouaves, and it is
manufactured in THE way;--Iake
two rats, tie their feet solidly to the
floor, or shelf, placing the nose OF
each next the tail Of the other: you
make an incision in the nose OF the
rats, and you fay portion OF theli
tails, which you then graft in the no.
ses, and tie the mouths closely with
their tail. Leave the rats together
for forty eight hours-in this time th'
rats grow together you then cut theil
tails. loosen their mouths, and give
them something to eat. In month
the wound is perfectly healed up, ane
the best eyes can detect no trace o
the wound; this is the way horned
rats are manufactured