80 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



renovated and now serves as moth-proof storage for the winter 

 equipment of uniforms of the Zoological Park rifle company, 

 which is officially connected with and subject to the call of the 

 New York Police Department, in case of grave emergencies. 



Owing to the serious shortage of coal, the Reptile House is 

 being maintained at a lower winter temperature than ever be- 

 fore. The collection is being very closely watched, and while 

 there is a tendency of specimens to feed very sparingly we do 

 not anticipate serious losses. The cost of feeding the reptiles 

 always has been extremely low as compared with the other i<ni- 

 mal buildings, but we have sought to economize, by all practic- 

 able methods, even using waste from other buildings, such as 

 banana skins and meat fragments. 



Early in 1917, the Department of Reptiles received a ship- 

 ment of tubes of anti-venomous serum for the treatment of snake 

 bite. This serum was produced specifically for the treatment of 

 bites of rattlesnakes, and its effect is much more efficacious than 

 serums produced by immunization from mixed venoms and used 

 for the bites of various types of poisonous snakes. 



The shipment of serum was received through the courtesy 

 of Dr. Vital Brazil, Director of the Institute of Serum Therapy, 

 at Butantan, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Brazil's scientific achieve- 

 ments in the treatment of snake-bite in his native country are 

 now world renowned. 



Fifty tubes of the serum (anti-crotalico) were sent imme- 

 diately to Col. H. Fisher, of the Medical Corps, U. S. Army, at 

 Washington, D. C. Col. Fisher distributed these tubes among 

 army units stationed in the South. These tubes were a gift to 

 the government by the New York Zoological Society. 



It was our understanding with Dr. Brazil that in exchange 

 for the serum we were to send him a consignment of poisonous 

 snakes, from which he could extract venom for the immuniza- 

 tion of additional animals. We obtained a large consignment of 

 big rattlesnakes from Texas, and these reptiles were placed in 

 strong shipping crates and shipped by the Lloyd-Brazilian Line 

 during the early summer. 



We are maintaining a reserve supply of serum at the Park 

 and occasionally have calls for it. Two cases of snake-bite were 

 successfully treated in the city during the past summer from 

 serum obtained from our stock. 



