ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE. 255 
male, and 9:2° C. in the female. Valenciennes, in some 
similar observations conducted in 1841 in the Jardin des 
Plantes, Paris, found the temperature of the incubating 
python as high as 41°5° C. 
The observations are of interest, for it indicates the 
occasional possibility of the python’s body temperature 
rising sufficiently high to favour the development of the 
tubercle bacillus, and as the python’s temperature 
appears to be slightly raised above that of the surround- 
| ing media, it would come very close to the required 
37° C. when the snake was exposed to the full glare 
of a hot midsummer sun. 
Under such conditions a snake when exposed to 
tubercular food resembles a European when exposed to 
the dangers of malaria on an unhealthy tropical coast. 
Vagary, in the liability to or immunity from a special 
disease among closely allied families of mammals, is 
exhibited in other than infectious diseases. Take, for 
instance, gout. No one has ever clearly shown that 
this affection occurs in animals other than man. It is 
stated that parrots are liable to gout, but this question 
assumes a different aspect when studied in relation with 
an interesting disease of the hog known as guanin 
gout. 
In man, apart from the pain and disturbance induced 
by an attack of gout, we find deposited in the less vas- 
cular parts, such as cartilage, tendinous and fibrous 
tissues, masses of a crystalline nitrogenous substance 
known as urate of soda. The crystals are needle-shaped, 
and in severe cases form collections, familiar to those 
who have very gouty relations, as chalk-stones. These 
