460 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



ing water three or four feet deep, was ready for the reception of the 

 Manatees, and the animals were then shifted to it from the tanks 

 in which they had been brought to the garden in the following 

 manner. The water was first entirely drawn off, the tanks were then 

 placed on a truck and water played in to the depth of 18 inches to 

 prevent the animals from bruising themselves in floundering about. 

 The truck with the tanks was then moved to the aquarium, two 

 keepers got into the tank, passed a thick blanket under the Mana- 

 tee, two keepers in the aquarium seized the blanket, and by a 

 sloping platform from the tank the Manatees were successively 

 slipped up and launched into the aquarium. In the course of a 

 week the Manatees had become much tamer, not floundering as 

 they formerly did when the water was let out of the aquarium, 

 but allowing the keeper to sweep around them. On Sept. 23d 

 the larger Manatee was veiy^ sluggish, lying upon the surface 

 of the water, and it would not sink to the bottom or swim about. 

 When it did move bubbles of air were seen tt> escape from the 

 anus; the excrement was very hard. The animal seeming con- 

 stipated, the keepers were directed to make it move about from 

 time to time; whilst in motion there was a constant stream of 

 ascending bubbles of air from the anus. At night-time, however, 

 the animal seemed much better, and the next morning was playing 

 about as usual. On the morning of September 28th the Manatees 

 were apparently quite well, but at 9.30 A. M. the keeper going to 

 clean out the aquarium, noticed that the large Manatee was quite 

 sick, and the small one dead. On opening the animal the peri- 

 cardial sac was found distended, filled with fluid, serous exuda- 

 tion, and other signs of inflammatory action. The remaining or- 

 gans were perfectly healthy. The alimentary canal was full of the 

 remains of the food the animal had been eating; but I do not re- 

 gard this as pathological, since Steller, in speaking of the stomach 

 j>f the Rhytina, notices that it " was distended with masticated 

 sea-weed." The morning that the small Manatee died the tem- 

 perature of the water, through unavoidable circumstances, was 

 noticed to have fallen to 63 Fahr., the usual temperature being 

 70 to 71. It must be mentioned, however, that on August 25th 

 the water was only 0G, and yet the animals did not seem to be 

 inconvenienced. The change of temperature, however, on that 

 occasion was a gradual one. It seems, therefore, very probable 



