152 A ROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



compatriots. The Melbourne elephant on postmortem 

 was found to have died from the same disease, hut the 

 calculus was much larger, weighing more than 100 

 pounds. It is not definitely known, but it is surmised 

 that the Queensland elephant met with a similar fate. 

 It seems that all large animals from tropic regions, 

 when brought into confinement, are subject to inflam- 

 matory affections of the bile ducts and subsequent gall- 

 stone formation. As elephants even in Australia com- 

 mand a price of $2,000, what inducement there would 

 have been to perform on these giant patients a life- 

 saving hepatotomy! 



POSTMORTEM ON A ZEBRA. 



One evening, in visiting the zoologic garden in Ade- 

 laide in company with Professor Watson and the super- 

 intendent of the garden, a fine-looking, slick, well-nour- 

 ished zebra came up close to the fence and seemed to 

 enjoy my patting her forehead and well-rounded neck. 

 The animal appeared to be in perfect health. It had 

 been in the garden for twelve years and was old when 

 it was brought there. The next morning I was in- 

 formed by Professor Watson that the animal had died 

 during the night. In the afternoon I attended the 

 postmortem, which was made under the direction of 

 Professor Watson. The abdomen was enormously dis- 

 tended, which seemed to indicate that the sudden death 

 was duo either to intestinal perforation or acute intes- 

 tinal obstruction. On opening the abdomen the giant 

 cecum, ascending and descending colon were found dis- 

 tended to their maximum limits. Large isolated sec- 

 tions of the liver were the seat of great dilatation of the 

 bile ducts, many of them sacculated, and on slitting 

 them open, were seen to contain a thick, turbid mucus, 

 the inflammatory accumulation of a chronic cholangitis. 

 Numerous ascarides lumbricoides of prodigious size 

 wore found in the stomach, well filled with the remains 

 of the last evening meal. The upper part of the lumen 



