102 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



contracted in transit, and which, not infrequently, arrive at the 

 Park in a moribund condition. Suffice it to say that our mortahty 

 compares not unfavorably with the human records for the Bronx 

 Borough. This is largely due to the fact that we are attempting 

 to keep many animals which other parks have given up on ac- 

 count of the great difficulty of keeping them. The New York 

 Zoological Society feels that with its superior facilities it owes 

 science the attempt to devise methods for the kec]Mng of these 

 animals, some of which already threaten to become extinct. If 

 we were to strike from our lists the deaths of the moose, caribou, 

 and native deer, all of which have been practically given up by 

 less ambitious institutions of like nature, our mortality rate would 

 be greatly reduced. Nevertheless, we have learned from these 

 sad experiences many facts, and we hope that in the near future 

 we shall be able to demonstrate that it is possible to keep these 

 animals when the necessary conditions shall be fully understood. 

 Recent results with the antelope and caribou fully justify us in 

 these conclusions. It must also be borne in mind that many of 

 these animals are short-lived even in a state of nature. 



Post-mortem examinations are now systematically made on all 

 animals dying in the Park. We find that these necropsies can 

 be made without injuring the carcass for the taxidermist, while 

 at the same time facts of the greatest scientific importance are 

 being discovered. I wish to particularly impress the importance 

 of routine examinations, for it is well known that we often find 

 the most valuable conditions where they are least expected. The 

 records of these examinations are filed, and in the course of a 

 few years we shall possess a collection of pathological data bear- 

 ing on the diseases of wild animals in captivity of the greatest 

 value, both practically and scientifically. 



On January i, 1903, there were nearly two thousand animals 

 in the Park. 



Deaths have been most frequent among the primates. Of the 

 one hundred and seventy deaths recorded in the entire collec- 

 tion sixty-seven have been members of this group. 



Of these sixty-seven deaths thirty have been from tuberculosis. 

 This brings the death rate in our monkeys from this disease to 

 within a small margin of the frequency of death from tuberculosis 

 in the human. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



Observations have been conducted with particular interest in 

 regard to this disease, and we have ajiparently established certain 



