The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-26
LION-BITES.


 The attacks of the lesser carnivora, smaller in proportion to man, are ire quently very painful; but matters are so ordered that the bite of a dog or a ferret is usually more painful than the injuries inflicted by the jaws of the lion. The instances quoted are very numerous and striking, and properly grouped according to locality, or the species of the attacking beast. In Somaliland the experiences of the bit ten are supplemented by Captain Aloud, the resident at Berbera, who has had a long experience of cases, English and native, as most of the former, unless killed outright, which very seldom hap pens are brought to Berbera.
 He states that "the view that no &C., tual pain is suffered at the time seems almost universal In most cases it would seem that there was no knowl- edge of the actual contact, even in the first rush of a lion, much less of any pain experienced from tooth wounds" This was the view not only of the Eng llSn put Of natives In one or two cases where CONSCIOUSNESS was entirely lost the person 'came to- while the lion was still standing over him, period of com plete anaethesia and unconsciousness having intervened But more common ly thosa =..ho have been attacked and have recovered are conscious all the time, and if they suffer at all do not feel acute pain. This may be accounted for partly by the shock given by the charge, which forms the usual prelim- mary to being wounded. A lion comes at it's enemy at full speed, galloping low, and dashes a man standing upright to the ground by the full impact of it's body Major Inverarity states that "the claws and teeth entering the flesh do not hurt as much as you would think" but that the squeeze given by the jaws on the bone is really painful. When knocked over he was still keenly con- scious, and felt none of the dreamy sen sation experienced by Livingstone.
 Major Swaine, struck down by a lion ess going full gallop, was unconscious for some minutes, and did not know what had happened till he found him. self standing up after the accident. T felt no pain" he writes, not, I believe
 
 Providence. but simply that the shock and loss of blood made me incapable of feeling it. There was no pain for a few days, till it was brought on by the swelling of my arm on the twelve days . ride to the coast.". Captain Moves, at- tackled in the same district by lion in 1895, was charged down. and bitten, until the creature left him. probably when at- tackled by his servants His hand was badly bitten, but he twas not conscious of any feeling of fear, or any pain what ever, probably because there was no time but felt exactly as if he had been boWled over in a football match, and nothing more" A far worse accident was that which befell Lieutenant Van dezee in the same year, near Beira. The lion charged him down in the usual way, and mangled his thighs and fractured one of his arms. During the time the attack on me by the lion was in prog ress," he writes, T felt no pain what ever, although there was distinct feel ing of being bitten--that is, was per fectly conscious, Independently of seeing the performance that the lion was gnawing at me, but there was no pain. I may mention that while my thighs were being gnawed I took two out of the breast pocket of | my shirt, and threw them to the Kaffir, I who was lowering a few yards away, | telling him to load my rifle, and imme- | diately the lion died and rolled off me, I scrambled up and took loaded rifle | and fired at the carcass. ."-London Spec tatOr