biomedicalephemera reblogged
Giraffe - Cameleopardis jakeyi
Our home-bred and partly tamed giraffe has exactly the same disposition; but as there are no twigs, nor bushes, nor many trees here, he does the best he can without, or more generally takes a substitute, and licks energetically at the stump of a segar [cigar], or if that wont do, he tries to lick something or somebody else. Or, to show how fully he can accommodate to circumstances, and the wide room there is for him to thrive, we will mention another alternative - he takes to lick-er, which seems to answer as well, as he flourishes upon it…
A Comic Natural History of the Human Race. Henry L. Stephens, 1851.
Beware the city-dwelling boozer giraffe.