1887.J ANIMALS IN THE SOCIETY'S GARDENS. 3()7 



The companion Lion still lives in the Gardens, and there is little 

 reason to douht that it is siini'arly affected, for it is paraplegic and 

 can only manage to drag itself a few paces. The head is occasionally 

 drawn to one side, and at intervals oscillates from side to side in a 

 rhvthmic manner. 



So far as I am aware, tlie present is the first account of this 

 singular affection that has yet been published, but there is little doubt 

 that if looked for other specimens will turn up. The abnormality is 

 an excellent example of disease modified by anatomical peculiarity. 



There is a widespread notion that in the human subject marriages 

 of consanguinity often result in the production of offspring with 

 physical defects. A good deal of evidence can be adduced in 

 support of this opinion. In animals little can be urged in its favour. 

 In them, on the other hand, hybrid offspring are most prone to ex- 

 hibit congenital defects. The following is a case in point. 



In February a female goat gave birth to two kids, the result of a 

 cross between the Common Goat and a Goral Antelope. The kids 

 were dead when born, and each pre^ented enormous enlargement of 

 the thyroid gland. Tliere was general dropsy, affecting not only 

 the subcutaneous tissue of the body, but giving rise to ascites 

 and hydrothorax. The enlargement of the glands was such as is 

 feen iu the common form of goitre. The disease was not associated 

 with defects in the bones which have been recorded in the calf under 

 the name of sporadic cretinism. 



A specimen of overgrowth occurred in the hind feet of a Coati ; 

 they are represented in my drawing (fig. 4). The animal suffered 

 from phimosis and suppuration of the scrotum, which prevented it 

 from freely moving about. As a result the papillae of the callous 

 pad have become enormously overgrown, and in one foot project 

 posteriorly iu the form of a blunt spur. These overgrown papillae 

 cause the feet to assume an appearance similar to the pads on the 

 toes of an Ostrich. 



On examining the feet of other Coatis confined in the Gardens, I 

 find that all present on each hind foot, along the inner border, a 

 collection of overgrown papillae similar to those just described, but 

 by no means so extensive. Whether this overgrowth of papillas in 

 this situation is found in the wild state I am unable to say, but in 

 Coatis which have been long in confinement it is larger than in those 

 recently added to the collection. The length and extent of this 

 abnormal papillary area, in all probability, depends upon diminished 

 usage of the foot — an inevitable result of captivity. 



It is well known that Cows living upon bogs or marshy land are 

 very liable to suffer from overgrowth of the hoofs ; the same holds 

 good for Horses. Thus, in a specimen of a Horse's manus preserved 

 in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, the overgrown 

 hoof measures from the heel to the tip nearly 12 inches. The 

 feet from which the drawings in fig. 5 were taken belonged to a 

 Goat which, for some time preceding its death, had lived in a 

 muddy paddock. The longer hoof measures no less than 14 inches 

 round the curve, the shorter one 9 inches. They are, so far as I am 

 aware, the longest examples of overgrown hoofs yet recorded. 



