CHAPTER SiR 
THE ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE. 
A LITTLE reflection soon convinces us that as the habits, 
structure, and environment of animals differ very widely, 
the manifestations of disease must also vary. Little, — 
however, has been done in the direction of studying the 
zoological distribution of disease, and its consideration in 
this work may be regarded as premature. Still it may 
be useful to indicate the amount of information we 
possess on the subject, and its scanty proportions should 
serve as a stimulus for further inquiry in this direction, 
and show how necessary it is that those who have had 
opportunities of making observations on this subject 
should record their experience. The matter is rendered 
more difficult from the impossibility of obtaining positive 
information concerning the diseases of wild animals in a 
state of nature; even the difficulty of obtaining their 
bodies is illustrated, in the case of monkeys, by Dr. 
Falconer in explaining the paucity of the remains of 
quadrumana in geological strata. “When the monkey 
pays the debt of nature his carcass falls to the ground, 
and immediately becomes the prey of the numerous 
predaceous scavengers of torrid regions, the hyzena and 
wolf. So speedily does this occur, that in India, where 
monkeys occupy large societies in mango groves around 
