FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 267 



occur if starvation was the sole cause of death. In such cases the muscles 

 disappear almost entirely, as well as the fat under the skin and in the abdo- 

 minal cavity, and a deer weighing 150 pounds in health would not weigh 

 more than fifty or sixty if dead of starvation alone. No such degree of 

 emaciation existed in any one of these four deer. No doubt, however, a 

 less degree of malnutrition would cause them to succumb to extreme cold, 

 such as we had last winter. 



It has been suggested that they may have died of thirst, the cold 

 having been so great as to freeze over their usual drinking places. There 

 certainly was plenty of snow on the ground, and the question arises whether 

 they ever eat this to slake their thirst, as other animals are known to do. 

 Some guides tell me that they do, while others positively assert that they 

 never do. Senator Curtis N. Douglas tells me he has himself seen them 

 do it. In any event these deer did not die of thirst, for their muscles were 

 not in the dry condition always found when such is the case, and the bladder 

 of each of them contained a considerable amount of urine. 



They did not die of any acid poison, such as corrosive sublimate or 

 arsenic, for their stomachs and intestines were in a perfectly healthy condi- 

 tion, not a single point of inflammation being found anywhere. In the 

 first stomach the individual leaves were easily recognizable; in the last one 

 the food had been reduced to a soft, homogeneous, pultaceous mass; in the 

 intestines digestion was going on naturally, there was no diarrhoea, and 

 each rectum contained a normal amount of the usual faecal masses. 



The}- did not die of strychnine poisoning, for their muscles were not in 

 the condition of tetanic rigidity and contraction which is always found under 

 such circumstances. 



They did not die from any intestinal parasite, for, while a few eggs were 

 found, there were no developed worms worth considering. 



They all had flukes in their livers — from three to twenty-one — and there 

 is no doubt that these parasites impoverish the blood and would greatly 

 aid malnutrition and exposure to cold in producing death. On the other 

 hand. I have examined the livers of a great many deer killed, when in 

 excellent condition in the hunting season, and cannot remember having 

 seen one that did not contain as many flukes as we found in these deer. 

 Undoubtedly it occasionally happens that a healthy deer has no flukes, 

 but more than one guide has told me that the larger and fatter the deer the 

 more likely you are to find flukes. The deer's liver is seldom eaten, not 

 only on account of its containing flukes, but also because as in other animals 

 which have not gall-bladders, it tastes bitter and disagreeable. Those who 

 eat it at all, after slicing it up, soak it for hours in repeated changes of water, 



