175 
Lizards are numerous on the table-land of Peru and Bolivia below 
12,000 feet. At all events, upon comparing these observations of 
Castelnau with those made in the Himalaya, we must come to the 
conclusion that Lizards are better adapted than Snakes to inhabit 
the highest localities in which Amphibian life is possible. 
8. On THE Causes ofr DEATH OF THE ANIMALS IN THE SOCIETY’S 
GARDENS, FROM 1851 TU THE PRESENT TIME, 1860. By 
Epwarps Crisp, M.D., F.Z.S., erc.—(Part I.) 
Before I proceed to the immediate subject of my paper, a few pre- 
liminary remarks will be necessary. 
In the earlier Numbers of our ‘ Proceedings’ several accounts of 
the morbid parts of animals dissected are given by Professor Owen, 
Mr. Martin, the late Mr. Yarrell, and others; but I believe no 
attempt has been made in this or in any other country to investigate 
the diseases of foreign animals in confinement, in a comprehensive 
manner, so as to endeavour to draw practical and useful deductions 
from them. Such will be my object in the present communication. I 
have made rough sketches in oil-colours of many of the diseased parts 
I shall have to describe, so that they may be the better understood. 
Tn 1851 I obtained permission from the Council of the Zoological So- 
ciety to examine all animals dying at the Gardens, for the purpose 
of physiological investigations ; but in these researches I was espe- 
cially anxious to ascertain the cause of death in all the animals I dis- 
sected, believing that the morbid condition of certain organs might 
throw some amount of light upon their functions. I mention this 
for the purpose of showing that, if I had examined these animals ex- 
clusively for the purpose of comparative anatomy, I should have been 
less careful about their abnormal conditions. 
In most instances in the examination of the blood, and in the in- 
vestigation of morbid structures, I have been aided by the use of 
the microscope. The large number of notes that I possess would 
enable me to make a very long communication; but, as my chief 
object in bringing this matter before the Society is to convey useful 
and practical information in plain and simple language, I shall re- 
serve some of the more minute and scientific parts of the subject for 
the Pathological Society. In addition to these remarks, I may ex- 
press my belief that the nature of the diseases of man will not be 
thoroughly understood, nor appropriately treated, until the devia- 
tions from normal structure are fully investigated in plants and in 
the lowest grade of animals: a doctrine, I believe, not promulgated 
before, and one that will be laughed at by many; but I have the 
greatest confidence that this mode of throwing light on the dark and 
uncertain nature of the art of medicine will hereafter be adopted. 
For the purpose of pointing out what I believe to be the import- 
ance of this matter, I trust I may be pardoned for quoting a short 
extract from my work on the Spleen, written in 1852 :—“ Nearly all 
