One hundred years ago
A LETTER in the Calcutta Englishman gives a curious account of what is oddly termed the "criminal career" of a leop- ard, which in twenty-one months killed 154 human beings, amongst others forty-one boys, twenty-two girls, and forty old women, in the Arani jurisdic- tion. It was at last killed itself, on April 6th, in the village of Madaha, four miles from Arbab, and found to measure 6 ft. 6 in., and to have an abnormally large head, and very powerful shoulders. It several times broke into houses, and dragged its victims out of the house to devour them. More ordinarily it seized them in the verandah, or children when playing in the open spaces. That this was a great homicidal career, is obvious; but if we are to call it a "criminal" career, we shall come before long to call volcanoes or earthquakes, or influenza or cholera, or even open drains, "crimi- nal," because they bring about a great number of violent deaths. A leopard, if not incapable of guilt, is surely no more guilty in killing a man than in killing a deer; and of crime it is even more cer- tainly incapable than of guilt. A crea- ture that has never even conceived the notion of law, can hardly offend against the law.
The Spectator 11 June 1892
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