ANIMALS WHO ARE DRUNKARDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 14 December 1907, Page 4

ANIMALS WHO ARE DRUNKARDS.

CURIOUS STORIES. llie "drink problem" in relation to the lower forms of animal life presents certain aspects that have their analogies in human life, sometimes tragic, always saddening, occasionally ludicrously amusing. Certain species of the tiniest insects are inordinately fond of intoxicants. These, however, do not become "habituate," for the "first offence" is invariably the last. The industrious bee is easily tempted from flowers to the more perilous seductions of sugared spirit, and the much maligned wasp gets as "drunk as a lord" on every available occasion, and in his liquor is a quarrelsome insect Cassio of a very dangerous kind. An excise officer attached to a distillery accidentally discovered, states Mr J. Bewick, F.R.Z.S., whose statements we reflect in this article, a means of getting rid of the moths and other insects that pestered him. He put temptation in their way, ond they "fell from grace." One night he was making a glass of whisky toddy, and accidentally spilled some on toe table. In a trice the inserts swarmed on it, wallowed in it, got dead drunk, and so periohwl! The life history and economy of (he h'iney b, e tribe hi,* Wen ||„. jt „, rk ~.| (J admiration of naturalist.* for th< usiml-. 01 yearn— surpassed only ui Iho rase of outs—and from the time'of Solomon (the first great naturalist mentioned in his Wy) there have been deftly appropriated by philosophers and poets to point a moral to adorn a tale.

BEES SADLY PRONE TO DRINK. But bees are sadly prone to fall victims to the drink habit," and if once a bee aipa of the natural intoxicating juice of ! certaul Points, the "poisoned chalice" commends itself to a disastrous extent, and it dies an irreclaimable drunkard. Any kind of sugared spirits exposed on a window-sill on a summer's day will lure bees away from the flowers, and beastly intoxication follows, our authority reminds ns. It is the same with ants; in fact, with all insects; with all animals, domesticated or semi-domesticated— with, of course, the exception of animals that drink nothing. Even among birds, degeneracy in this respect is not unknown. Mr Bewick tells us that he knew a pet gander that had a notorious reputation as a "toper " He had seen it "lip" up a quart of stout greedily, and although that kind of liquor was its favorite, it took beer readily, and 'a hair of the dog that bit him" in the morning, in the shape of whisky and water, was never refused. That particular goose lived to a great age. How "Jenny," a female Barbary monkey, fell from the grace of temperance I was, writea Mr Beswick, very puzzling J •SS&JfrteSJfcagfi.j'*" time wal a strict abstainer, and she was his con-i sunt companion in the house, in the garden, in his rural rambles, even on his angling expeditions. But fall she did, and in her dodges to procure liquor displayed abnormal cunning. She came to know every public house for miles around, and wandered for and wide, invariably, Dy a kind of drunken instinct peculiar to man, finding her way home even when thoroughly intoxicated. Inconsiderate people used to give this unhappy monkey I liquor, and nothing came amiss, from | "fire-water" to beer. She died comparatively young. |

[ DOGS THAT TAKE To DRINK. Some dogs "take to drink," the saddest case of irreconcilable degeneracy being that of a Scottish deerhound named Juno. Juno was a favorite of her master, always accompanying him to a hotel about 10 p.m. for supper. It was probably there that she graduated as a toper. She certainly became one, and whisky she could swallow as easily as a man could an oyster. In time her drinking feafs become the subject of bets. She also had the curious "homing instinct." One fine spring morning the master was trudging, home and espied Juno several hundred yards ahead of him, evidently very drunk, but steering in the right direction. He followed slowly. When she got to the garden gate she managed to paw open the gate, and ehe staggered on to the lawn and rolled down under a bush. Next day she was very ill, and he administered a "nip" with a i few drops of another kind of poison in it. She wagged her tail feebly, looked him kindly in the face—and died.

Among domestic animals the horse is most liable to succumb to the craving for alcofcolic liquor. When a horse shows symptoms of taking cold, it is quite usual with some people to give him a good stiff drink of whisky in his feed. The average horee swallows the alcoholic mixture with great relish, but during the following daylie will exhibit symptoms of fatigue, fever, headache; in fact al. the signs of tho alcoholic reaction.

ilr Beswick was acquainted with a | handsome bay hunter, who, having re- | ceived doses of whisky three days in euccession, refused after that to eot or work until at least a pint of liquor had been poured out for him. As his owner wus very fond of riding him, he humored this depraved taste. When the horse was intoxicated he rode splendidly, hut his progress on the downward path was rapid. At the end of two years the animal died, a hopeless case of alcoholism Science Sidings.