70 KEPORT OF THE SECEETARY. 



cleanliuess. These are qualities that are considerably beyond what is required 

 of a common laborer. 



The keepers are divided into three classes receiving compensation as follows : 



I'er month. 



First class ?65. 00 



Second class 62. 50 



Third class 60. 00 



These men allege that their service is extra hazardous, that they are usually 

 required to work on Sundays and holidays, and that since the cost of living has 

 advanced considerably of recent years some advance should be made in their 

 wages. 



Hospital and Jahoratory. — At present the park has no adequate provision for 

 the care of sick animals nor for the quarantining of those believed to be af- 

 fected with contagious or infectious diseases. When ill the animals remain in 

 the exhibition cages, their sufferings being displayed to the pul)lic, and enhanced 

 by the disturbance which necessarily goes on about them, or, if removed from 

 their cages, they are placed in unsuitable quarters where they are subject to 

 annoyance and far from comfortable. Several cases of contagious disease have 

 been rapidly propagated to several animals for want of means of promptly 

 isolating the first suspected case. There is need for a suitable building placed 

 in a secluded part of the grounds where animals can be properly isolated and 

 treated. 



Connected with this there should be a laboratory in which proper examina- 

 tion can be made of the pathological and anatomical material that may come to 

 hand. But very little is known concerning the diseases that affect wild animals 

 and the parasites that associate themselves with them. An extension of our 

 knowledge in this direction would undoubtedly be of benefit to those who are 

 studying the diseases of man. 



In other countries the most significant scientific function of collections of 

 living animals has been the advancement of knowledge with regard to the 

 structure, habits, and activities of animals. Nearly all such knowledge has 

 been derived from zoological collections of a character similar to that of the 

 National Zoological Park. For example, in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, 

 investigations have been carried on since the middle of the eighteenth century 

 by men who achieved, in this way, a world-wide fame, svich as Duverney, 

 Daubenton, Buffon, Cuvier, Geoffroy St. Ililaire, and Milne Edwards; in the 

 garden of the Zoological Society of London worked Owen, Flower, Huxley, 

 Sclater, Beddard, and many others ; the garden at Berlin afforded Hartmann 

 material for his work on anthropoid apes, and it was at the Amsterdam garden 

 that Fiirbringer was able to prepare his moiumiental work on the structure of 

 birds. The collections of the National Zoological Park should be utilized in 

 a similar way. 



It is thoiight that a modest hospital and laboratory, similar to the one recently 

 established at the zoological garden in Philadelphia, can be built and e(iuipped 

 at a cost of about $8,000. At the New York Zoological Park an institution of 

 this liind is about to be erected which will probably cost considerably more. 



Roads and paths. — The park is much frequented by carriages. Lying, as 

 it does, along the valley of Rock Creek, it affords the most convenient and pleas- 

 ant access to the Rock Creek Park that lies north of it, and tlie main driveway 

 in that park connnunicates directly with the principal road in the National 

 Zoological Park. On this account it is of especial advantage to the public that 

 the roadways in the National Zoological Park should always be in good con- 



