110 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



we must secure our stock from dealers in whose enclosures infec- 

 tious and questionable food are the rule rather than the exception. 

 We can, therefore, only hope to exclude the more serious cases by 

 our quarantine system and to prevent, in so far as possible, infec- 

 tions within the Park. Later on it may be practical to make micro- 

 scopic examinations of the ejecta of all new animals which enter 

 the collection, and by this means we should be able to exclude still 

 more cases and thus greatly reduce the possibility of intra-park 

 infections. 



Mischerschen Schlenche. — As predicted in my previous report 

 the Mischerschen schleuche has been found in the myocardium of 

 all the elk which have died or which have been killed. Bronchial 

 filaria have also been universally present in these animals. 



Bronchial Filaria. — From incomplete experiments made by me, 

 I am about convinced that bronchial filaria are at least sometimes 

 communicated directly from animal to animal by means of the 

 ovae or embryos of the parasite which, I believe, I have shown 

 may sometimes develop directly into the mature filaria without 

 the intervention of an intermediary host, though this is probably 

 generally present. There can be no doubt but that the infective 

 agent, probably the ovae or embryos, are conveyed through in- 

 fected dirt or water, but so far we have been unable to confirm 

 our ideas experimentally. 



For the purpose of statistical information it has seemed best 

 to me to classify certain diseases as they occur at the Park under 

 the heads of the systems, for though this method is subject to 

 many disadvantages, after a few years such records will doubtless 

 be of considerable statistical value. 



DISEASES OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



Five animals have died from diseases of the central nervous 

 system, two from cerebral haemorrhage, one of traumatic Origin, 

 one case from cerebro-spinal meningitis, one from acute cerebral 

 meningitis with acute mania (a cheetah) and two from "cage 

 paralysis." Since these instances are to be discussed in a special 

 communication, it seems unnecessary to more than mention them 

 here and to call attention to the appreciable large number of deaths 

 from this class of disease, consequently the importance of proph- 

 ylaxis and of 'a more thorough study of these conditions, not 

 only on account of their great value to comparative medicine and 

 pure science, but also for the more purely economic problems of a 

 great zoological collection. 



