182 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON xin 



Gardens," congratulates the Society upon the fact that the 

 anticipations of the increased health of this interesting portion 

 of the collection, resulting from a free exposure to the external 

 air and total absence of artificial heat, have heen fully realised. 

 The effects of more air and greater exercise were indeed said 

 to have become visible almost immediately. Animals which 

 were emaciated and sickly before their removal became plump 

 and sleek in a fortnight after, and the appetites of all were 

 so materially increased that they began to kill and eat each 

 other. This, however, led to an immediate increase in their 

 allowance of food, since which time, it is stated, no further 

 accidents of the kind have occurred. As this structure, 

 looked upon at that period as so great an improvement upon 

 its predecessors, still remains, though adapted for other 

 inmates, we all have an opportunity of contrasting the size 

 of its dens and the provision it affords generally for the 

 health and comfort of the animals and the convenience of 

 visitors, with those of the magnificent building which super- 

 seded it in 1876. 



In the report of the year 1840 it is stated that the only 

 work of considerable magnitude undertaken since the last 

 anniversary was the erection of the " New Monkey-house," 

 and the Council speak with great satisfaction of the sub- 

 stantial nature of the structure and the superior accommodation 

 which its internal arrangements were calculated to afford to 

 its inmates. 



Many of us may remember this building, which stood on 

 the space now cleared in the centre of the Gardens. Twenty- 

 four years after its erection, in their report, dated April 

 1864, we find the Council speaking of it as "what is at 

 present perhaps the most defective portion of the Society's 

 Garden establishment," and the erection of a second " New 

 Monkey-house" was determined upon. This is the present 

 light and comparatively airy and spacious building, the 

 superiority of which over the old one in every respect is 

 incontestable. 



Up to the year 1848 the only attempt which had been 

 made to familiarise the visitors with the structure and habits 

 of animals of the class Eeptilia was by the occasional display 



