16 ON DEATHS IN THE SOCIETY'S GARDENS. 



in the cow and sheep, and rare in other animals. A fibro-myoma, 

 arising from the circular muscular coat of the large intestine, was 

 discovered in a Hedgehog. It was loosely impacted in the pelvis, 

 and death was due to tuberculosis of the lungs and not to the 

 tumour. 



Gomjxirative Pathology of the Thyrokl Gland. — The material 

 examined during 1918 has confirmed and extended the obser- 

 vations reported last year on the thyroid. In consequence of the 

 increased attention directed to this organ a number of cases of 

 thyi'oid enlargement have been found and studied. Senile cystic 

 goitre was obsei'ved in an Andaman Teal. In a Nutmeg Finch 

 both thyroids were greatly enlarged, being twenty to thirty times 

 the normal size. Tiie microscopical appearance was that of ex- 

 ophthalmic goitre in man, the thyroid vesicles being filled with 

 masses of proliferated epithelial cells and practically no normal 

 vesicles with colloid could be seen. The Baska Tortoise which 

 died in 1918 also showed an enlarged thyioid. The gland had 

 undergone a tumour-like transformation, the epithelium of the 

 dilated vesicles being folded into papillomatous outgrowths. The 

 whole gland was increased in size, being three to four times as 

 large as that of another tortoise of nearly the same weight. 

 Neither in the Nutmeg Finch nor in the Baska Tortoise was 

 there any record of symptoms during life which could be ascribed 

 to the changes in the thyi'oid. 



The accompanying table (Table III.) shows the influence of 

 meat and vegetable diet on the size of the thyroid gland very 

 clearly. 



The animals are arranged in descending order as to weight and 

 the Herbivora are all much heavier than the Carnivora placed 



Table III. 



Carnivoeous. Heeeivoeous. 



Elephant-Seal (950 lbs.) 14-5 g. Eland 13-Og. 



Lion (600 lbs.) 40-0 Giraffe (juv.) lO-Q 



Tiger 24-0 Takin 9-0 



Grizzly Bear 14-0 Zebra 6-0 



Himalayan Bear 8-0 Anoa 5-0 



Sea-Lion ll'O Water-Buck 5-0 



Leopard (33 lbs.) 7-0 Huanaco 2-0 



Serval (ISlbs.) 2-5 Capybara 2-5 



Skunk (7ilbs.) 9-0 Porcupine (22 lbs.) 2-5 



against them. Nevertheless, the latter have the heavier thyi-oids 

 with the exception of the Elephant-Seal and the Sea-Lion, which 

 live on a fish diet. The contrast in size of thyroid between the 

 Elephant-Seal weighing 950 lbs. and the Skunk weighing only 

 71 lbs. shows that it is not a structui"al peculiarity of Cai-nivora 

 as such, but a consequence of diet peculiarities, which manifests 

 itself in this way. Similarly, the Bears, Cat-beai'S, and Coatis, 

 which subsist on a mixed diet, do not show the massive thyroids 

 of the'strict Carnivores. 



