CHAPTER XII. 



THE ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF DISEASE. 



A LITTLE reflection soon convinces us that as the habits, 

 structure, and environment of animals differ very widely, 

 the manifestations of disease must also vary. Little, 

 however, has been done in the direction of studying the 

 zoological distribution of disease, and its consideration in 

 this work may be regarded as premature. Still it may 

 be useful to indicate the amount of information we 

 possess on the subject, and its scanty proportions should 

 serve as a stimulus for further inquiry in this direction, 

 and show how necessary it is that those who have had 

 opportunities of making observations on this subject 

 should record their experience. The matter is rendered 

 more difficult from the impossibility of obtaining positive 

 information concerning the diseases of wild animals in a 

 state of nature ; even the difficulty of obtaining their 

 bodies is illustrated, in the case of monkeys, by Dr. 

 Falconer in explaining the paucity of the remains of 

 quadrumana in geological strata. " When the monkey 

 pays the debt of nature his carcass falls to the ground, 

 and immediately becomes the prey of the numerous 

 predaceous scavengers of torrid regions, the hysena and 

 wolf. So speedily does this occur, that in India, where 

 monkeys occupy large societies in mango groves around 



