RARITY OF PULMONARY COMPLAINTS. 87 



the same conditions that are found on the rookeries, the body was allowed to lie out 

 of doors, exposed to the weather, for two days before it was dissected. The results 

 of the autopsy agreed exactly with the diagnosis of starvation in man, as well as with 

 the appearances of the organs in other pups whose death was ascribed to starvation. 

 When first taken, on August 1, the pup weighed 12 pounds; at the time of death, on 

 August 15, the weight was reduced to 9 pounds. The appearance of the organs was 

 as follows : Lungs small, flaccid, deeply congested ; comparatively little blood in heart, 

 and no clot; liver small, thin, and very dark; gall bladder full; much dark bile secre- 

 tion in intestines, forming the ''tarry feces" so characteristic of starvation; kidneys 

 small and dark ; both branches of uterus congested. 



It may be said, too, that a blind pup was killed on Zapadni by choking and 

 crushing, much as might have occurred had the little one been sat upon by a bull, or 

 trampled beneath a score of stampeding cows, and that the lungs showed the charac- 

 teristic congestion found in the lungs of evidently trampled bodies, although, as was 

 often the case in them, there was little external evidence of what had happened. 



As the autopsies were, as stated, made and recorded in the field, it was not prac- 

 ticable to go into i)articulars ; and where, for example, the lungs were congested, that 

 fact alone was stated without describing their appearance in detail, although there is 

 a great difference between the flaccid, purple congestion of a starved lung and the 

 fuller, redder look of a lung congested from trampling or smothering, still another 

 variety of congestion resulting from drowning. But while this is not noted in the 

 autopsies, it was taken into consideration in deciding on the cause of death. 



The rarity of pulmonary diseases is shown by the fact that only one seal was thus 

 affected, this being a case of catarrhal j)neumonia, ' found on Big Zapadni. That such 

 should be the case is not, however, to be wondered at, for it would indeed be surpris- 

 ing to find animals whose lives are passed in the water, or on cold rocks in a raw, 

 foggy atmosphere, suffering from pulmonary complaints. In this respect, as in all 

 others, " natural selection " tends to improve the race of fur seals by eliminating the 

 weak or sickly, for Nature harshly and promi)tly removes all individuals which lag 

 behind in the race for life. The old seals, however, are much given to sneezing when 

 on shore, although the cause of this is unknown. 



The most common source of trouble among the little seals, although common only 

 by comparison, is inflammation of the bowels, seemingly brought about by constipation, 

 the large intestine being packed to distention with green fecal matter, with resultant 

 inflammation. Three instances of this trouble were found on St. Paul, and as many 

 on St. George, in 1897. Mr. Suodgrass, who made the autopsies on the latter island, 

 notes that in two instances the umbilical cord and a portion of the placenta were still 

 attached, the region about the umbilicus being x^articularly inflamed. As in these 

 instances the state of the intestines was similar to those in which the umbilical cord 

 had disappeared, it seems likely that its presence simply aggravated the disease and 

 had no part in producing it. 



Another case of inflammation of the bowels, noted in 1896, may have been brought 

 about by a blow or by a fall from the rocks, and the same may be said of the single 

 case of inflammation of the kidneys, as the region over these organs is particularly 

 liable to be struck by the flipper of some old seal. 



' So diaguosed by Dr. Wm. Gray, of the Army Medical Museum, who prepared several sections 

 from one of the lungs. 



