People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1897 — TIGER WITH A GLASS EYE. [ARTICLE]

TIGER WITH A GLASS EYE.

Successful]) Operation, Said to He the First of the Kind. Here is a tiger with a glass eye. Every mentgerie and zoological garden has its doctor, surgeon and dentist to look after the many ills that wild beasts in captivity are heir to, says the New York Journal. At Stuttgart the services of an eminent oculist were recently invoked in behalf of a tawny monarch of the Bengal jungle. The beast had been suffering for a long time with an incurable affection of the eye. Removal of the optic wa3 determined upon. In the operation cocaine was used, chloroform being out of the question, as members of the feline race succumb very easily to the fumes of the anaesthetic. Several strong keepers were called in to hold the animal down during the operation. He was bound and muzzled. During the cutting open of the lid, an operation which was necessary to loosen the sinews, the tiger showed little uneasiness, but it evidently suffered much when the muscles and the nerves of the eye were cut through. Immediately after the operation the animal became very quiet and soon appeared to be much relieved. A tiger with one eye is an un-canny looking object. A week later, when the wound had healed, a glass .eye with the proper expression of ferocity was introduced into the cavity. This seemed to cause the tiger much uneasiness and perplexity, and he has since sat for hours at a time endeavoring to rub out the glass optic. The eye was specially constructed from measurements made of the one taken out. It is the first instance on record of a wild animal being supplied with an artificial eye. The man who is willing to only hav« a little religion, might as well not hava any.