Electric Lion-Taming.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 79, 6 December 1884, Page 4

Electric Lion- Taming.

Bellisain, the lion-tamer, had a narrow escape at Calais recently. He was in the lion's cage, driving the beast through its usual leaps, "when it suddenly flew at him. After a hard struggle he managed to back out of the cage, all torn and bleeding. His shoulder was fearfully lacerated, and he was severely bitten in the wrist j his re covery is considered hopeless. The accident has brought into notice a curious invention made by another well-known tamer, M. Kauspach, who has also been bitten and otherwise injured in the course of his professional career. The invention consists of an electrical apparatus of great power, shaped like a stick, about three feet and a half in length. He has already experimented with it upon the denizens of the cages in his menagerie, and relates the different effects on the brutes. Three of his lions receiving the shock immediately show ed signs of the greatest terror. They were seized with trembling and growled fitfully. The tiger was more quickly subdued, became stupefied, and crouched in a corner of the cage. Bruin was more refractory to electricity, which seemed scarcely to affect him. He would growl and show his teeth, and was subdued after repeated discharges. The most astonishing effects, however, were perceptible in the boa constrictor. On receiving the discharge, the specimen from Cayenne, nearly twenty feet in length, became at once paralysed, and remained motionless for six hours afterwards. When he recovered he showed signs of numbness for three whole days. Finally, the elephant being electrified by a touch of the stick upon the tip of the trunk, set up a series of wild cries, and became so savage that the tamer feared the brute would break its heavy iron chain. Useless to say, the last experiment was not repeated. M. Rauspach is said to intend addressing a paper upon the experiments to the Academy of Sciences.