AUSTRALIA. 153 



staff. During the last year 704 new patients were ad- 

 mitted. One hundred and two operation? were per- 

 formed on indoor patients and 364 on out-patients. 

 Chloroform alone was used as an anesthetic 50 times; 

 ether. 58; gas, 4; chloroform, followed by ether, 553; 

 gas, followed by ether, 1. Appendicitis operation, only 

 1, and this patient died. Tuberculosis of the hip joint 

 figures conspicuously in the list of surgical cases. Of 

 25 cases, only 2 were subjected to operative treatment, 

 showing conclusively the conservatism which is ob- 

 served in this hospital in the treatment of joint tuber- 

 culosis. Of 78 cases of diphtheria, the disease proved 

 fatal in 3. Fifty cases of typhoid fever were treated 

 without a death, certainly a remarkable record, and 27 

 cases of pneumonia, with only 4 deaths. 



GALLSTONE IN" ELEPHANTS. 



During the last year three Indian elephants have 

 died in the zoologic gardens of Australia, one in Mel- 

 bourne, one in Queensland, and the last one in Ade- 

 laide. When I visited the museum of the university 

 with Professor Watson the taxidermists were engaged 

 in mounting the last victim. This elephant was of 

 enormous size. He had been an inmate of the Adelaide 

 zoologic garden for a long time, and was 30 years old. 

 He was sick only a short time, and the postmortem, 

 conducted by Professor Watson, revealed as the imme- 

 diate cause of death an enormous abscess in the center 

 of the liver, and in this abscess was found a gallstone 

 that weighed 25 pounds. As the elephant has no gall 

 bladder, this stone must have formed in one of the 

 hepatic ducts. This rare and valuable specimen dis- 

 appeared in a somewhat mysterious way before it could 

 be taken to the museum, and it was ascertained later 

 that it was purchased from the pilferous possessor by 

 a Chinaman, who paid $10 for it and considered it a 

 great bargain, as he expected to realize a fortune from 

 it by converting it into a cure-all medicine for his sick 



