SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 151 
sons to suspect that at least actinomycosis exists to some extent 
among the wild antelope of the Western States, and may be an 
element in the rapid disappearance of this beautiful fauna. 
Without going into the many interesting details connected 
with another year’s work of this department in the treatment, 
both medical and surgical, of the multitude of non-contagious 
conditions which are constantly coming up wherever men or an- 
imals are grouped together in large numbers, all of which we 
have labored assiduously to relieve in the most rational and hu- 
mane manner known to us in the light of present experience, I 
am pleased to report that good results have been gained and many 
lives been saved which otherwise would have been lost. 
A generous amount of time has been devoted to the systematic 
disinfection of animal quarters at stated intervals, and in the 
inquiring into the state of food and shelter conditions. Gastro- 
enteritis among the Western ungulates, which has been under in- 
vestigation since the opening of the Park, continues to receive our 
attention, and while its presence is still felt its ravages have upon 
the whole been less severe than heretofore, and from experimental 
conditions, due record of which is on file, I feel myself in position 
to say with much confidence that the past and present difficulty, 
at least among the caribou and buffalo, has been due much less 
to the climate than to the ingestion of improper grasses; the prob- 
ability of contagion may be entirely excluded. 
The fact that pastures or ranges upon poorly drained soil 
highly fertilized with horse manure, being at all times not only 
exceedingly distasteful but very injurious to ruminants com- 
pelled to take their food from them, along with what has become 
matters of record regarding internal parasites and their spread 
among the animals, should be the subject of a special joint inves- 
tigation of the most rigid kind by the Executive Committee and 
the Engineering Department, in order that immediate and 
effective steps may be taken to give the animals some real and 
lasting protection from these diseases. 
These problems will be found difficult of solution, and should, 
I think, call for the attention of experts, and unless such range 
as that of the buffalo can be put into more perfect order I would 
strongly advise it to be abandoned, so far as those animals are 
concerned, for a more suitable one. 
While much can be gained by the right system of drainage 
and water supply, I respectfully suggest the advisability of in- 
quiring into methods of reducing the superabundance of fertility 
of the soil and simplifying the nature of vegetation in at least 
