OSTEOMALACIA OF PRIMATES IN CAPTIVITY. 



A CLINICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF ^- CAGE PARALYSIS." 



FROM THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



By HARLOW BROOKS and W. REID BLAIR. 



"/"^AGE paralysis" or '"cripples" is a condition of such fre- 

 V_^ quent occurrence, particularly among the primates, that 

 it forms one of the most serious obstacles to the maintenance of 

 large and complete collections of wild animals in captivitv. 



Judging from the frequent inquiries which have been addressed 

 to us regarding this condition, and from statistical reports from 

 other collections, we have been more fortunate in the small num- 

 ber of fatalities from this complaint than most parks of similar 

 size, and yet the death-rate from this disease has headed the list 

 among OLir primates since tuberculosis has practically been eradi- 

 cated from the collection. For this reason, and as a matter of 

 sure scientific interest, our attention has been particular!}- directed 

 toward "cage paralysis'" for the past two years. 



In the Report of the New York Zoological Society for 1903, 

 one of us (Brooks) presented a small series of cases studied from 

 the standpoint that the disease was primarily one of the central 

 nervous system. As a result of this preliminary study it was 

 concluded that the condition, as recognized by animal men, was 

 not a true disease entity, but that it really represented a very 

 wide group of spinal and cerebral disorders, probably covering as 

 extensive a field as the similar groups of human cerebro-spinal 

 diseases. 



During the past year we have carefully o])servcd all instances 

 of the malady as it appeared in our collection and. as a result, 

 one of us (Blair) has noted a series of lesions which, after con- 

 siderable study, we believe to be primary and essential to the dis- 

 ease in any form, and which causes us to unhesitatingly class it 

 as osteomalacia. 



The studies appearing on diseases of wild animals arc so few 

 and so widely distributed throughout the enormous literature 

 of zoology, veterinary medicine, human and experimental niedi- 



