THE NATIONAL ZOO AT WASHINGTON. 7ll 



thing as solitaiy contiiicment in Woodward's Gardens. Every pris- 

 oner there had at least one powerful friend Avho was always near and 

 ready to attend to all his wants, including the craving for sympathetic 

 companionship which few animals are entirely without. 



But all these alhwments are mere expedients. The real plan is to 

 restore the natural conditions. We are slowly grasping the idea, 

 taught by the greatest thinkers in all ages, that the animals have an 

 inalienable, God-given right to the pursuit of happiness in their own 

 wa3" as long as they do not interfere with our happiness. And if we 

 must for good reasons keep them in prison, we are bound to make 

 their condition tolerable, not only for their sakes, but for our own, 

 because all the benefit that we can get out of them in bondage is 

 increased in proportion as we slacken their bonds within the limits of 

 judicious restraint. 



If a Chinaman after going through Sing Sing were to say, " I have 

 heard much of the high mentalit}^, the attainments, and the refinement 

 of the white race, but these seem to me merely a lot of sullen, stupid 

 brutes," it would about parallel the case of an ordinary menagerie 

 viewed by an ordinar}^ onlooker. If we wish to enjoy the beaut}^ of 

 the animals, or study their development and learn how it bears on our 

 own, w^e must see them living their lives. This can not be done in 

 box cages, is very difficult in the wilds, and is easily possible only in 

 a zoological park. 



Occupation and plenty of good food are not the only things needful 

 to a well-i'ounded life. No matter how cared for, fed, and housed, 

 the occupants of every well-known monkey house were formerl}^ 

 afflicted with coughs, colds, and lung diseases, that made their abode 

 like a hospital and carried off the inmates at plague rates, so that but 

 few monkeys saw their second season in confinement. All sorts of 

 remedies were tried without avail; hothouses with natural accessories, 

 continual medical treatment, and all, failed to lower the death rate. 

 At last it occurred to the monkey keeper of a European zoo that all 

 this coddling would be very bad for a human being, so whj^ not bad 

 for monkeys^ He decided to treat them like fellow-creatures; he dis- 

 carded the stuffy hothouses; he gave his monkej^s free access to the 

 pure air and the sun. in a cage as large as he could get it, large enough 

 to give room for exercise, and the result was that coughs and colds 

 began t > disappear. The death rate rapidly fell; each month and year 

 that passed gave fuller indorsement to the idea. In short, he had 

 learned the art of monkey-keeping. 



Each advance of knowledge has emphasized these great principles 

 that the lower animals are so like ourselves that to keep thom in health 

 we must give some thought to their happiness, and in aiming at both 

 we must accept the ordinary principles obtained from study of 

 ourselves. 



These are among the considerations that shaped the scheme of the 



