ON DEATHS IN^ THE SOCIETY'S GARDEN^S. 



13 



2. Report on Deaths o£ A.niinals in the Gardens in 1918. 

 By J. A. Murray, M.D., Acting Hon. Pathologist 

 to the Society. 



[deceived March 1, 1919 : Read Marcli 4, 1919.] 



As in previous years the main facts of the mortality among 

 the animals in the Society's Gardens are summniised in the 

 Tables (I. and II.) given below. In birds and reptiles (including 

 batrachians and fishes), the combined mortality statistics show 

 practically no change as compai-ed with 1917 and previous years. 

 The higher mortality among mammals is mainly due to the 

 admission during 1918 of a large number of young monkeys 

 {M. rhesus) in which a heavy death-rate occurred. In addition, 

 a considerable number of the more easily replaceable animals were 

 sacrificed on account of the food-shortage occasioned hj the war. 



Table I. 



Table II. gives the distribution of the more important causes 

 of death among the chief mammalian orders, in birds, and in 

 reptiles, batrachians, and fishes. In the case of the primates a 

 sepai'ate column has been reserved for the young Macacus rhesus 

 admitted dviring the year. This has seemed advisable to avoid 

 obscuring the details of the sufficiently severe losses among the 

 otlier monkeys, many of which had been in the Gardens for years. 

 In the case of acute infections of the respiratory tract, time has 

 not permitted the accurate separation of the cases into lobar and 

 broncho-pneumonia, capillary bronchitis, and acute congestion, 

 and they are therefore all included under the one heading of 



