THE NATIONAL ZOO AT WASHINGTON. 709 



usually shut up, and when showing it is in the tent, always a draft v, 

 ill-ventilated, foul-smelling- place. The great advantage of the circus 

 is the constant change of scene — the varied excitements that give the 

 animals something to think about, and keep them from torpid habits 

 and mental morbidness. 



It has long been known that caged animals, especially the highly 

 organized kinds, suffer from a variety of mental diseases. Mr. < Mini- 

 mus, the superintendent referred to, informs me that camels and several 

 other species commonly end their cage lives in lunacy. The camels 

 turned loose in Arizona some years ago were reduced at length to one 

 old male. Jncourseof time his solitary life affected his brain. Accord- 

 ing to local tradition, he went crazy, and used to attack every living 

 creature near, until he was killed by a mounted cowboy whom he had 

 pursued with murderous intent. 



Captive bears are apt to fall into a sort of sullen despondency. 

 Foxes and cats often go crazy, and no matter how obviously mental 

 the disease, it is usually set down to hydrophobia, and the unanswered 

 question is, How did they get it? Dogs that are constantly chained 

 up commonly become sullen and dangerous. The higher apes and 

 baboons rarely thrive in cages. Soon or late they become abnormally 

 vicious, or else have a complete physical breakdown. All this is so 

 human, and so emphasizes the great truth of evolution, that the wise 

 keeper seizes on the cue, and in his management of his charges treats 

 them like human beings of a lower development than himself. 



Many a man shut up in a cell has saved his mind by inventing some 

 trifling amusement. It is recorded that one set a daily watch on the 

 movements of a spider. Another tried how many times he had to toss 

 live pins before they fell in just the same way. Another tried to run 

 10 miles each day in his narrow limits. Yet another busied himself 

 inventing new arrangements for the two or three articles of furniture 

 in his cell. Many have paced up and down each day for a number of 

 hours. And whatever they did. all alike were seeking to put in time, 

 to while away the awful tedium of their monotonous lives, to respond 

 to the natural craving for exercise, and to save their minds and bodies 

 from actually withering from disuse. 



If instead of "human captives" we read "wild animals'* in all this. 

 we shall have a very fair portrait of what we may see every day in an 

 ordinary menagerie. Why does the elephant swing to and fro forever 

 from his chain picket? Why does he gather from the floor all the 

 straw he can reach, throw it over his back and over the stable, to be 

 regathered later? Why does the squirrel enter and work for hours 

 the aimless treadwheel, aiid the marten leap listlessly half a day from 

 point to point— floor, perch, slat, box; floor, perch, slat, box- again 

 and again, with monotonous sameness day after day I Why does the 

 lone ostrich waltz far more than does his wild kinsman that has many 



