It is clear that by our work of last summer the statements of the British Commissioners, 

 and of Mr. Macuuri, are amply corroborated. 



Causes of Death. 



While this first count on St. Paul Island proceeded, about 150 bodies of pups were 

 dissected. The dissection was in the greater number of cases performed conjointly by 

 Mr. Lucas and myself. The examination was a somewhat cursory one ; the bodies were 

 rapidly opened on some convenient stone on the rookery ground, and the appearances 

 noted on the spot. Neither Mr. Lucas nor 1 are pathologists, and the symptoms noted 

 are simply those that would present themselves at once to any anatomist's eye. So far as 

 they go, however, they are not without interest. 



In the first place a very considerable number of pups died during this early period of 

 starvation. Dr. Jordan (Preliminary Report, p. 47) attributes to this cause the death of 

 only " perhaps of 200 in all," or less than 2 per cent, of the whole. This is, I think, the 

 only point of any consequence where I find myself at variance with Dr. Jordan on a matter 

 of actual fact and observation. 



1 take the following five consecutive cases from my notes of dissections made at 

 North-east Point on the 10th August. The pups were not selected by me, but such as 

 seemed fresh enough for dissection were laid aside by Dr. Jordan and Mr. Clark as they 

 passed over the rookery making their count, and I dissected them there and then : 



40. Female pup, thin, no subcutaneous fat. Stomach empty; rectum full of very 

 black sticky matter ; lungs and viscera apparently normal. 



41. Male pup, large, very thin. Muscles pale in colour; lungs deeply congested; 

 stomach and small intestines empty, the latter stained with much bile ; rectum contained 

 black slimy matter. 



42. Male pup, thin ; stomach empty ; lungs normal ; rectum contains small quantity 

 of black slimy matter. 



43. Female pup, very thin ; lungs deeply congested ; stomach empty. 



44. Male pup, very thin; lungs deeply congested; stomach and rectum empty; 

 intestines suffused with bile. 



In every one of these cases il seems to me safe to say that the pup was starved. In 

 the case of the pup starved for experiment, and dissected by Dr. Voss on the 15th August, 

 the record of autopsy was as follows : 



" Lungs small, flaccid, deeply congested ; comparatively little blood in heart, and no 

 clot ; liver small, thin, and very dark ; gall bladder full ; much dark bile secretion in 

 intestines ; kidneys small and dark ; both branches of uterus congested." 



The accumulation of tarry matter in the intestines, black with bile products, or 

 perhaps with the pigments of extravasated blood, was found by us to be a constant accom- 

 paniment of starvation, and though our general knowledge of the symptoms of death by 

 actual starvation is scanty, yet we are not without evidence of a similar phenomenon in the 

 human subject (c/., Taylor's "Medical Jurisprudence/' edition 3, vol. ii, p. 138). 

 Suffusions of bile and a distended gall-bladder are still more familiar concomitants of 

 death by starvation. I have preserved notes of eighty-one autopsies of pups, made mostly 

 by Mr. Lucas and myself, some by myself alone, others by Dr. Jordan and Dr. Voss ; and 

 of these eighty-one, nineteen are described as " emaciated and very thin," and six more 

 as "thin." Nine showed the slimy or tarry black or greenish matter in the rectum, 

 besides others which showed more or less conspicuous suffusions of bile. 



In some of these cases injuries had been received from the immediate effects of which 

 the pup died; but in all, if starvation did not actually take place, it had at least been 

 imminent. 



In rny opinion, difficult as it may be to account for the fact, the deaths attributable 

 to starvation, or that occur after a stage of emaciation has been reached, are, even in the 

 early season, before pelagic sealing can have produced its effect, very much nearer to 12 or 

 20 per cent, than to the 2 per cent, below which Dr. Jordan estimates them. 



Whatever may be the proportion of deaths from starvation in this early part of the 

 season, the bulk of the pups have undoubtedly met their death by accidental injuries, by 

 being smothered in the sand, injured by bulls, and sometimes by drowning in the surf. 

 We could detect no sign whatever of any disease of an epidemic kind. 



The following are the percentages of dead pups to the whole number born on the 

 various rookeries as shown in the August count : 



