1884.] ON THE DISEASES OF CARNIVOROUS MAMMALS. 1/7 



1. On the Diseases of the Carnivorous Mammals in the 

 Society's Gardens. By J. B. Sutton, Lecturer on Com- 

 parative Anatomy, Middlesex Hospital Medical College. 



[Eeceived February 26, 1884.] 



Introduction. 



In this paper it is proposed to give au account, as briefly as is 

 consistent with accuracy and clearness, of some of the more impor- 

 tant diseases which affect the Carnivorous Mammals, prisoners in the 

 Society's Gardens. 



So far as disease is concerned, there is no need to draw particular 

 distinction between the various groups of this great class of animals. 

 It is sufficient for my purpose to know the kind of food and general 

 habits of any particular animal ; consequently, in this paper, the 

 refinements of zoological classification will be set aside, and the word 

 " carnivorous " will be used in the broadest acceptation of that term. 



The splendid and varied collection of flesh-eating animals, the 

 property of this Society, offered me a rich hunting-ground for 

 pathological spoil, and rich has been the ingathering. 



From the outset of my post-mortem experience among these 

 animals, my attention has always been aroused by two very opposite 

 conditions of things : — one is the paucity, and in some cases, the 

 total absence, of lesions to account for death ; in the other case, one 

 is struck with the existence of extensive disease of vital organs, 

 which must have been present for a considerable period without de- 

 stroying life. 



For example, a Tiger is reported to be ailing, and in a few days 

 the creature is dead. At the autopsy nothing to account satis- 

 factorily for the animal's death can be discerned even after the most 

 diligent search. Whereas an Esquimaux Dog which had been on 

 the sick list for some time before its death, presented the following 

 list of pathological conditions : — Ulceration of the left fore leg, pro- 

 bably cancerous ; old valvular disease of the left side of the heart ; 

 atheroma of the aortic arch ; three old infarctions in the liver, with 

 three large cysts in the same organ. In addition to these lesions of 

 important viscera, it had an enlarged prostate, an abscess in each 

 testicle, carious teeth (a very rare condition in wild animals), psoro- 

 sperms by thousands scattered through the voluntary muscles and 

 lungs, and a venous naevus of the skin. 



Of course it is within the bounds of probability that, in some of 

 these cases where the animals die with only a few days of previous 

 illness, they have been seized with some acute malady, which up 

 to the present has eluded my search. Another fact of great im- 

 portance in connexion with this observation should be mentioned. 

 It is the great tendency of animals to die in pairs: for example, a Bear 

 died; three days after its companion was found dead: no obvious 

 lesion beyond evidence of inflammation of the alimentary canal in 



