SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 131 



sons to suspect that at least actinomycosis exists to some extent 

 among the wild antelope of the \\'cstern States, and may be an 

 element in the rapid disappearance of this beautiful fauna. 



Without going into the many interesting details connected 

 with another year's work of this department in the treatment, 

 both medical and surgical, of the multitude of non-contagious 

 conditions which are constantly coming up wherever men or an- 

 imals are grouped together in large numbers, all of which we 

 have labored assiduously to relieve in the most rational and hu- 

 mane manner known to us in the light of present experience, I 

 am pleased to report that good results have been gained and many 

 lives been saved which otherwise would have been lost. 



A generous amount of time has been devoted to the systematic 

 disinfection of animal quarters at stated intervals, and in the 

 inquiring into the state of food and shelter conditions. Gastro- 

 enteritis among the Western ungulates, which has been under in- 

 vestigation since the opening of the Park, continues to receive our 

 attention, and while its presence is still felt its ravages have upon 

 the whole been less severe than heretofore, and from experimental 

 conditions, due record of which is on file, I feel myself in position 

 to say with much confidence that the past and present dil^culty, 

 at least among the caribou and bufifalo, has been due much less 

 to the climate than to the ingestion of improper grasses; the prob- 

 ability of contagion may be entirely excluded. 



The fact that pastures or ranges upon poorly drained soil 

 highly fertilized with horse manure, being at all times not only 

 exceedingly distasteful but very injurious to ruminants com- 

 pelled to take their food from them, along with what has become 

 matters of record regarding internal parasites and their spread 

 among the animals, should be the subject of a special joint inves- 

 tigation of the most rigid kind by the Executive Committee and 

 the Engineering Department, in order that immediate and 

 effective steps may be taken to give the animals some real and 

 lasting protection from these diseases. 



These problems will be found difficult of solution, and should, 

 I think, call for the attention of experts, and unless such range 

 as that of the bufifalo can be put into more perfect order I would 

 strongly advise it to be abandoned, so far as those animals are 

 concerned, for a more suitable one. 



While much can be gained by the right system of drainage 

 and w^ater supply, I respectfully suggest the advisability of in- 

 quiring into methods of reducing the superabundance of fertility 

 of the soil and simplifying the nature of vegetation in at least 



