253 
In the year 1841 I was in the Province of Veragua, in New Granada, to the 
north of the Isthmus of Panama and left the town of St. Jago on the western 
coast for David in Chiriqui, a town in the interior, about 60 or 70 miles to the 
‘northeast (and leeward) of St. Jago. The smallpox was raging with great 
violence in St. Jago, but there was no appearance of it in David. A few days 
after my arrival there, taking my customary morning’s ride in the forest, which 
teems with animal life, I was struck by observing one or two sick and apparently 
dying monkeys on the ground under the trees. The next morning I was struck 
by the same singular appearance (for it is very unusual to find a wild animal 
sick—they instinctively hide themselves) and by thinking that 1 perceived 
several on the trees, moping and moving about in a sickly manner, I consequently 
dismounted and carefully examined two, which were on the ground—one dead and 
the other apparently dying; and after careful examination, no doubt remained in 
my mind that they were suffering and had died from smallpox. They presented 
every evidence of the disease, the pustules were perfectly formed, and in one 
instance (that of the dying one) the animal was nearly quite blind from the 
effects. A few days afterwards (I think about four or five days) the first case 
of smallpox appeared amongst the inhabitants of David, and in the course of a 
fortnight one-half of the population was stricken. 
In 1858 Dr. Furlong, taking part in a discussion upon diseases in 
animals, stated that he had received a letter from the wife of a prominent 
physician of the Island of Trinidad who mentioned that during epidemics 
of smallpox in that island the wild monkeys suffered from the disease. 
Charles Kingsley makes the same statement with regard to an epidemic 
of smallpox which visited the same island in 1739. We have not been 
able to find where this author got the information. 
In view of the statements cited above one can not deny that the monkey 
may contract smallpox from man. It is probable that different species 
of monkeys show different degrees of susceptibility to the contagium. 
The New World monkeys differ in many respects from their relatives in 
the Old World and it is quite possible that they are more susceptible to 
smallpox. The monkeys which are generally used in experimental work 
in smallpox come from the Eastern Hemisphere. We believe that notable 
increase in our knowledge of smallpox waits on the finding of an experi- 
mental animal in which variola vera can be produced. The susceptibility 
of the New World monkeys in this respect should be tested. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Furtone. Diseases of Animals. The Veterinarian, London (1858), XXXI, 142. 
ANDERSON, A. Study of Fever, London (1861). , 
Kinastgy, C. At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. Tauchnitz Edition, 
GIsAlyne; 12% 
ZULZER, W. Zur Aetiologie der Variola. Cent. f. d. Med. Wiss. (1874), 82. 
Brust, JoHN. Vaccinia and Variola: A Study of Their Life History. London 
(1887), Churchill. 
CopEMAN, 8S. M. Variola and Vaccinia; Their manifestations and interrelations 
in the Lower Animals. A comparative study. Jour. Path. and Bact. 
(1894), II, 407. 
STERNBERG, G. M., and W. Reep. Report on immunity against Vaccination con- 
ferred upon the Monkey by the use of the Serum of the Inoculated Calf and 
Monkey. Trans. Assoc. Am. Phys. (1895), X, 57. 
