LABORATORY OF COMPARATIVE PATHOLOGY 507 



THE LABOEATOEY OF COMPAEATIVE PATHOLOGY OF 

 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA 



By R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



IN" various publications recently I have pointed out the fact as to how 

 little is being done in the way of describing the anatomy of the 

 existing Vertebrata of our fauna. One animal after another is now being 

 exterminated with a rapidity never before equalled in the history of 

 man, neither has there ever been a time in that history when so little 

 was done to preserve detailed accounts, properly illustrated, of the 

 comparative morphology of the species so doomed. 



This state of things is not entirely confined to our own country by 

 any means, for the same neglect is but too apparent elsewhere. Faunas 

 are being exterminated and material recklessly wasted at zoological 

 gardens, laboratories and other places to an extent that is most deplor- 

 able. Comparative anatomists of the next century will be fully justified 

 in saying what they please of such criminal neglect as this, when they 

 come to realize the extent to which those of the present one ignored 

 their opportunities in this field of scientific research, and allowed so 

 many animals to die out without leaving the shadow of a record 

 describing their structure. 



We are doing much better with respect to the study of the causes of 

 death in those ferine forms which die in captivity, for the activity along 

 such lines is very marked and more or less universal. Not only are the 

 diseases of the vertebrates below man being studied in numerous and 

 fully equipped institutions in this country and abroad, but, through 

 various scientific methods, comparative pathology, including that of 

 man and the domesticated animals, is being investigated, studied and 

 utilized in a manner far more extensive than has ever been the case in 

 the history of our race. Such investigations include the parasites of 

 the Vertebrata, a field of research which has received so much attention 

 during recent years at the hands of Dr. F. E. Beddard, prosector of the 

 Zoological Society of London, in the Old "World, and Dr. Charles War- 

 dell Stiles, of the Bureau of Animal Industry of this country. 



Eecently I have been in communication with Dr. Herbert Fox on 

 this subject, and he has kindly placed at my disposal a set of photo- 

 graphs illustrating the building and the work rooms of the Laboratory 

 of Comparative Pathology of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, of 

 which institution he is now the pathologist in charge. Dr. Fox has also 



