THE GREAT HERBIVORES 175 
example, there is now living in one of the Duke of Bedford's 
English parks a giraffe which three years ago was affected 
with the disease. Although the precise cause of this ailment 
has not as yet been definitely ascertained, the trouble has now 
been overcome, for we have adopted a new method of feeding 
which appears to keep the animals immune from its attacks. 
At all events, since then, we have lost no more specimens from 
this cause. 
Giraffes in general are certainly not delicate animals. 
Various menageries, among others that of the elder Kreutz- 
berg, have travelled about for years with giraffes, the beasts 
apparently suffering in no way from their wandering life. A 
specimen, which I sold to Barnum, withstood the hardships 
of travelling in a tent circus for as long as eight years, and 
would undoubtedly have lived much longer still, if it had not 
been killed in an accident. Furthermore, these long-legged 
mammals will breed very readily in captivity ; to my know- 
ledge, they have done so in the Zoological Gardens in Lon- 
don, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, the 
most recent births being in London, Berlin and Cologne. 
The first giraffes that were ever seen in Europe were 
sent over by the Viceroy of Egypt in the summer of 1827 as 
gifts to the British and French Governments, and were lodged 
in the London Zoological Gardens and in the Jardin des 
Plantes at Paris. For some years after this there were not 
very many giraffes imported, only an occasional example 
arriving in Europe, but later on, especially during the decade 
1867-1877, the number brought from the Sudan was very 
large. In the year 1876 I myself received no fewer than 
thirty-five specimens, and I, of course, was not the only im- 
porter. There was, for instance, another firm which exported 
from Africa twenty-six specimens. The result of this was 
that the price for these “goods” sunk deplorably, and 
it became necessary to decrease the importation. A year 
later I sold the last three young giraffes in my stock to an 
Englishman for the ridiculous price of £150. Not long after 
