40 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. 
The statistics of the Medical Department have now reached 
that stage where reliable deductions may be made on a number of 
problems connected with the care of wild animals in confinement. 
Aside from the medical treatment of diseased animals, much 
work during the past year has been directed toward determin- 
ing the effect of close confinement on the various organs of the 
body, particularly the heart and blood-vessels, kidneys and liver: 
also toward the purpose of learning to what extent degenerative 
changes in these organs contribute to the lowering of the resist- 
ance of the body forces in various diseases. 
No animals of great value have been lost during the past year, 
and the death-rate has been held down to what appears to be its 
normal limit. Gastro-enteritis among the hoofed animals, and 
tuberculosis and “cage paralysis” among the primates, which have 
occupied so much of the attention of this department in the past, 
are now, we are happy to say, no longer important factors in the 
death-rate. 
A great deal of interest is now being taken in comparative 
pathology, and much valuable material from this department has 
been utilized by various pathological laboratories, among them, 
The Rockefeller Institute, Health Department of New York City, 
Boston University School of Medicine, Carnegie Laboratory, 
and others. 
Our veterinarian was delegated by this Society to attend the 
International Congress on Tuberculosis, held at Washington, 
D. C., during September, and besides contributing a paper on 
“Tuberculosis in Wild Animals” to this Congress, he was bene- 
fited by observing the very latest methods of dealing with this 
universal problem. 
BRONX PARKWAY COMMISSION. 
The Bronx Parkway Commission has, as yet, been unable to 
obtain from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, any 
money to prepare the necessary plans and surveys, which must be 
completed before any work can be commenced on the Parkway. 
The Comptroller of the City of New York, to whom the applica- 
tion of the Commission was referred, made a favorable report 
strongly endorsing the plans of the Commission, but the other 
members of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment have 
withheld their consent, on the plea of financial stringency. The 
protection of the river and the lands along the river valley is 
absolutely essential to the communities on the banks of the 
