DESPERATE STRUGGLE WITH A MAD WOLF.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1626, 27 August 1887, Page 3

DESPERATE STRUGGLE WITH A MAD WOLF.

An Odessa correspondent writes: — I hare just seen at the Odessa Bacteriological Hospital, five patients, from the district of Jemal, all of whom had been bitten by a mad wolf. Among them was one apparently possessed of considerable bodily strength. He told me that a few days ago in the grey of the morning, he was in his little farmyard when something sprang on his back and off again. He turned instantly to find himself face to face with a large and angry-looking wolf, crouching to spring again. The animal’s head and jaws were bespattered with foam. It was evidently rabid, and, although instantly apprehending this, the brave old man rushed upon his assailant, thrust his left hand into the animal’s mouth and seized its tongue, whilst with his left hand he endeavoured to strangle the brute. A terrible struggle ensued. The wolf’s fangs met through the man’s hand and held it like a vice. After ten minutes’ struggle the chances were against the old man who was suffering excruciating torture from the mangled tendons of his left hand. He now threw himself bodily upon the wolf, still struggling desperately, and for the first time called for assistance. Several neighbors hurried to the spot and despatched the wolf, whose jaws never relaxed even in death. A file was brought, and the wolf’s lower jawremoved. The old man’s left hand is in a dreadfully lacerated condition, , but he is more or less torn all over the body. He told me with a smile that it was the first time a sneaking dog of a wolf had proved a match for him, but he was not so young as he used to be and had somehow lost the old grip. During the last twelve months 519 persons had been treated at the Odessa Bacteriological station here on the Pasteur system. The patients have come from all parts of Russia, as well as from Eoumania, Servia, and Bulgaria.