AN INDIAN ELEPHANT

“Tell my grandchildren” said the late Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, writing home from India, “that an elephant here had a disease in his eyes. For three days he had been completely blind, his owner, an engineer officer, asked my dear Dr. Webb, if he could do anything to relieve the poor animal. The doctor said he would try nitrate of silver, which is a remedy commonly applied to similar diseases in our human eye. The huge animal was ordered to lie down, and at first, on the application of the remedy posed a most extraordinary roar at the acute pain which pre-occasioned. The effect, however, was wonderful. The eye was, in a manner, restored, and the animal could initially see. The next day, when he was brought, and heard the doctor’s voice, he lay down of himself, placed an enormous head on one side, curled up his trunk, drew up his breath just like a man about to endure an operation, gave a sigh of relief when it was over, and then, with trunk and gestures, evidently wished to express his gratitude. What sagacity! What a lesson to us of patience!”