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In all cases in
which persons have escaped after being seized by a lion or tiger, they
declare that they suffered little or no pain, physical or mental. A
well-known instance is that of Livingstone, who thus describes his
sensations when seized by a lion: "Starting and looking half round, I
saw the lion just in the act of springing on me. I was upon a little
height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the
ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as
a terrier-dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that
which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It
causes a sort of dreaminess, _in which there was no sense of pain or
feeling of terror_, though I was quite conscious of all that was
happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of
chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel not the knife.
This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The
shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round
at the beast.


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