SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 105 



itself in the animal's pelage and cause them to become unthrifty 

 in appearance, but the attendant weakness and incompetency of 

 such animals to withstand herd-life among vigorous compan- 

 ions exposes them to serious injury which, once gained, for ob- 

 vious reasons can seldom receive the treatment which is ex- 

 tended to other animals. 



Tuberculosis, the fourth disease of importance with which I 

 have been confronted up to date, has not assumed, I am pleased 

 to say, anything like the prevalence in our various installations 

 which has attended the keeping of large collections of animals 

 in this and other parts of the world. 



Since all animals which die within the Park are systematically 

 examined after death, I am in a position to report that no traces 

 of this disease have been found in any of the various installa- 

 tions beyond four cases of small monkeys and one case of avine 

 tuberculosis (eagle) in the bird collection. 



Since every possible effort has and constantly is being made 

 to avoid crowding of the collections, and to keep up a system of 

 thorough cleansing and disinfection of all cages, and particularly 

 those of subjects of known susceptibility, we hope for still great- 

 er immunity from this scourge, which is so truly the bane of ani- 

 mals in captivity. Of the cases examined, the lesions were 

 located mainly in organs other than the respiratory, which fact 

 greatly mitigates against rapid dissemination of the contagium. 



While the above briefly summarizes the character and treat- 

 ment of diseases which have in the main constituted our greatest 

 perplexity, and have in part been more or less satisfactorily 

 solved, much still remains to be worked out, particularly along 

 the line of gastro-enteritis of Western ungulates. 



The remaining named conditions of disease which called for 

 treatment were, with few exceptions, such as occur in general 

 practice among domestic animals, and have given quite as sat- 

 isfactory results when treated. 



ANESTHETICS. 



It will be of special interest to those humanely as well as sci- 

 entifically interested in this particular study to learn that the 

 conduction of our surgical work among the animals, of which a 

 goodly amount has been done, has at all times and without ex- 

 ception, when it was in the least degree possible, been prose- 



