Summarise the passage to 150 words ANIMAL doctors? Why, that may sound like something out of a child’s storybook. Yet it is a fact that many animals are quite successful when it comes to treating their ailments. And they do this in ways that frequently prove to be more effective than those used by man. Yes, animals have been endowed with an instinctive ability to treat themselves when they have certain afflictions. Archibald Rutledge, a writer and naturalist, recalls that when he was a plantation boy he kept many wild animals as pets, one of them being a little white-tailed deer. One day he found that his pet had torn a nasty gash in its side on a barbed-wire fence. To help heal the wound, he cleansed it and carefully bandaged it.
Summarise the passage to 150 words ANIMAL doctors? Why, that may sound like something out of a child’s storybook. Yet it is a fact
that many animals are quite successful when it comes to treating their ailments. And they do this
in ways that frequently prove to be more effective than those used by man. Yes, animals have been
endowed with an instinctive ability to treat themselves when they have certain afflictions.
Archibald Rutledge, a writer and naturalist, recalls that when he was a plantation boy he kept many
wild animals as pets, one of them being a little white-tailed deer. One day he found that his pet had
torn a nasty gash in its side on a barbed-wire fence. To help heal the wound, he cleansed it and
carefully bandaged it.
However, the deer seemed to know better what to do about this than did its human friend.
The fawn pulled the bandage off, carefully licked the hair away from the injured area and then
exposed it fully to the fresh air and sunlight. What happened? In a short time, the wound was
healed. How was this little deer able to get such good results? It has been found that animals have a first-class antiseptic dressing on their tongues. The enzymes of their saliva act as a natural, mild
germicide. Experiments have shown that when it was added to cultures of bacteria, the bacteria
did not thrive. But germs flourished in cultures that were not treated with the saliva. So, right in
the mouths of many animals there appears to be a built-in medicine chest.
When some injury or sickness threatens the health of an animal, its instinct diagnoses the
problem and dictates what it should do. This enables it to have the right prescription and to apply
the best medication to cure what may be ailing it. As Frank W. Lane observes in his book Nature
Parade: “Animals act as if they knew different illnesses require different treatments.” For
example, if an animal is injured, it will seek solitude where it can get complete rest. If it has a
fever, it seeks an airy, shady place near water. There it remains quiet, eating very little and drinking
often. If the animal is rheumatic, it exposes itself to the sunlight so as to soak up the heat to relieve
its pain. Sometimes grass is eaten to induce vomiting. When an astringent is needed, certain
animals will eat bark and twigs of oak trees, which contain tannic acid, an astringent medicine.
The effectiveness of animal medicine was demonstrated to Joseph Delmont, a wild-animal
collector, in a rather amusing way. One day he found his pet orangutan sunning itself and holding
both hands to its left cheek. He noticed that the orangutan had smeared the left side of its face with
wet clay and that it was holding another large lump of clay pressed against its lower left jaw. He
also saw that the orangutan had filled its mouth with clay. Was this some orangutan antic? No, for
Delmont soon noticed that his pet’s jaw was swollen and that it had a severe gumboil. It became
rather obvious what the orangutan was trying to do. He was doctoring his malady by applying a
cold clay poultice to it. Did he effect a cure by this method? Three days later the orangutan pulled
out the ailing tooth and, to advertise the success of his medical achievement, brought the tooth to
his master with obvious pride. Yes, Dr. Orangutan was not at a loss as to how to care for his painful
dental problem!
Mr. African Buffalo is not one whit behind when it comes to coping with his health
problems. Delmont relates that he once came upon a herd of these buffalo that were badly afflicted
with scabs. He followed them to see what would become of them, and after ten days of travel, they
reached the shores of a muddy lake. There the buffalo went on a partial fast and spent most of the
day wallowing in the mud, standing up to their necks in the water. After a month, Delmont was
able to examine one, and he saw that the afflicted areas were beginning to grow hair again and that the troublesome mites were almost gone. Since the herd showed no signs of moving on, he
continued to watch them. After a few days they began working on their necks, rolling them often
in the mire and forming hard, thick mud crusts over the last of these infected places. The buffalo
did not go back to their regular diet nor did they stop their muddy medications until they were
completely healed.
Of course, it is one thing to cure an ailment and it is quite another thing to take precautions
to avoid it. And in this latter regard, we find that animals are equipped with the instinctive ability
to practice preventive medicine. Yes, many creatures, large and small, take steps to help
themselves to stay in good health.
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