110 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: 
we must secure our stock from dealers in whose enclosures infec- 
tious and questionable food are the rule rather than the exception. 
We can, therefore, only hope to exclude the more serious cases by 
our quarantine system and to prevent, in so far as possible, infec- 
tions within the Park. Later on it may be practical to make micro- 
scopic examinations of the ejecta of all new animals which enter 
the collection, and by this means we should be able to exclude still 
more cases and thus greatly reduce the possibility of intra-park 
infections. 
Mischerschen Schleuche.—As predicted in my previous report 
the Mischerschen schleuche has been found in the myocardium of 
all the elk which have died or which have been killed. Bronchial 
filaria have also been universally present in these animals. 
Bronchial Filaria.—From incomplete experiments made by me, 
I am about convinced that bronchial filaria are at least sometimes 
communicated directly from animal to animal by means of the 
ove or embryos of the parasite which, I believe, I have shown 
may sometimes develop directly into the mature filaria without 
the intervention of an intermediary host, though this is probably 
generally present. There can be no doubt but that the infective 
agent, probably the ove or embryos, are conveyed through in- 
fected dirt or water, but so far we have been unable to confirm 
our ideas experimentally. 
For the purpose of statistical information it has seemed best 
to me to classify certain diseases as they occur at the Park under 
the heads of the systems, for though this method is subject to 
many disadvantages, after a few years such records will doubtless 
be of considerable statistical value. 
DISEASES OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
Five animals have died from diseases of the central nervous 
system, two from cerebral hemorrhage, one of traumatic origin, 
one case from cerebro-spinal meningitis, one from acute cerebral 
meningitis with acute mania (a cheetah) and two from “cage 
paralysis.” Since these instances are to be discussed in a special 
communication, it seems unnecessary to more than mention them 
here and to call attention to the appreciable large number of deaths 
from this class of disease, consequently the importance of proph- 
ylaxis and of a more thorough study of these conditions, not 
only on account of their great value to comparative medicine and 
pure science, but also for the more purely economic problems of a 
great zoological collection. 
