Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [269]
in Ball's "Jungle Life in India," there is the following curious account of two children in the Orphanage of Sekandra, near Agra, who had been discovered among wolves: "A trooper sent by a native Governor of Chandaur to demand payment of some revenue was passing along the bank of the river about noon when he saw a large female wolf leave her den, followed by three whelps and a little boy. The boy went on all-fours, and when the trooper tried to catch him he ran as fast as the whelps, and kept up with the old one. They all entered the den, but were dug out by the people and the boy was secured. He struggled hard to rush into every hole or gully they came near. When he saw a grown-up person he became alarmed, but tried to fly at children and bite them. He rejected cooked meat with disgust, but delighted in raw flesh and bones, putting them under his paws like a dog." The other case occurred at Chupra, in the Presidency of Bengal. In March, 1843, a Hindoo mother went out to help her husband in the field, and while she was cutting rice her little boy was carried off by a wolf. About a year afterward a wolf, followed by several cubs and a strange, ape-like creature, was seen about ten miles from Chupra. After a lively chase the nondescript was caught and recognized (by the mark of a burn on his knee) as the Hindoo boy that had disappeared in the rice-field. This boy would not eat anything but raw flesh, and could never be taught to speak, but expressed his emotions in an inarticulate mutter. His elbows and the pans of his knees had become horny from going on all-fours with his foster mother. In the winter of 1850 this boy made several attempts to regain his freedom, and in the following spring he escaped for good and disappeared in the jungle-forest of Bhangapore.
The Zoologist for March, 1888, reproduced a remarkable pamphlet printed at Plymouth in 1852, which had been epitomized in the Lancet. This interesting paper gives an account of wolves nurturing small children in their dens. Six cases are given of boys who have been rescued from the maternal care of wolves. In one instance the lad was traced from the moment of his being carried off by a lurking wolf while his parents were working in the field, to the time when, after having been recovered by his mother six years later, he escaped from her into the jungle. In all these cases certain marked features reappear. In the first, the boy was very inoffensive, except when teased, and then he growled surlily. He would eat anything thrown to him, but preferred meat, which he devoured with canine voracity. He drank a pitcher of buttermilk at one gulp, and could not be induced to wear clothing even in the coldest weather. He showed the greatest fondness for bones, and gnawed them contentedly, after the manner of his adopted parents. This child had coarse features, a repulsive countenance, was filthy in his habits, and could not articulate a word.
In another case the child was kidnapped at three and recovered at nine. He muttered, but could not articulate. As in the other case, he could not be enticed to wear clothes. From constantly being on all-fours the front of this child's knees and his elbows had become hardened. In the third case the father identified a son who had been carried away at the age of six, and was found four years afterward. The intellectual deterioration was not so marked. The boy understood signs, and his hearing was exceedingly acute; when directed by movements of the hands to assist the cultivators in turning out cattle, he readily comprehended what was asked of him; yet this lad, whose vulpine career was so short, could neither talk nor utter any decidedly articulate sound.
The author of the pamphlet expressed some surprise that there was no case on record in which a grown man had been found in such association. This curious collection of cases of wolf-children is attributed to Colonel Sleeman, a well-known officer, who is known to have been greatly interested in the subject, and who for a long time resided in the forests of India. A copy, now a rarity,
The Zoologist for March, 1888, reproduced a remarkable pamphlet printed at Plymouth in 1852, which had been epitomized in the Lancet. This interesting paper gives an account of wolves nurturing small children in their dens. Six cases are given of boys who have been rescued from the maternal care of wolves. In one instance the lad was traced from the moment of his being carried off by a lurking wolf while his parents were working in the field, to the time when, after having been recovered by his mother six years later, he escaped from her into the jungle. In all these cases certain marked features reappear. In the first, the boy was very inoffensive, except when teased, and then he growled surlily. He would eat anything thrown to him, but preferred meat, which he devoured with canine voracity. He drank a pitcher of buttermilk at one gulp, and could not be induced to wear clothing even in the coldest weather. He showed the greatest fondness for bones, and gnawed them contentedly, after the manner of his adopted parents. This child had coarse features, a repulsive countenance, was filthy in his habits, and could not articulate a word.
In another case the child was kidnapped at three and recovered at nine. He muttered, but could not articulate. As in the other case, he could not be enticed to wear clothes. From constantly being on all-fours the front of this child's knees and his elbows had become hardened. In the third case the father identified a son who had been carried away at the age of six, and was found four years afterward. The intellectual deterioration was not so marked. The boy understood signs, and his hearing was exceedingly acute; when directed by movements of the hands to assist the cultivators in turning out cattle, he readily comprehended what was asked of him; yet this lad, whose vulpine career was so short, could neither talk nor utter any decidedly articulate sound.
The author of the pamphlet expressed some surprise that there was no case on record in which a grown man had been found in such association. This curious collection of cases of wolf-children is attributed to Colonel Sleeman, a well-known officer, who is known to have been greatly interested in the subject, and who for a long time resided in the forests of India. A copy, now a rarity,