IN CAPTIVITY IN LOWER BENGAL. 25 



sufficient, if only two or three monkeys are being conveyed. The older 

 the monkeys are, the more difficult it is to transport a number of them 

 together. 



Treatment in sickness. 



These monkeys are subject to the same diseases as orangs and 

 hoolocks in captivity. Besides diarrhoea, dysentery and other diseases 

 already mentioned, they often suffer from various kinds of wounds, the 

 results of fighting and accident. Fortunately they possess great vitality, 

 and the process of healing is so rapid that unless the wound is very 

 severe or extensive, little or no human skill is necessary to effect a cure. 

 When the injury is deep or extensive, the following treatment should 

 be adopted. The surrounding fur having been carefully shaved and 

 the wound washed with a weak solution of corrosive sublimate (1 in 

 1,000 or 1 in 1,500), iodoform should be sprinkled over it. Lint should 

 not be used, even if the wound be somewhat deep, as in that case the 

 monkey will finger it constantly until it succeeds in removing the dress- 

 ing. Iodoform should be discontinued when granulation sets in, and 

 boracic ointment used instead. The monkey should be kept in a cage 

 similar to that recommended for its transport, but smaller, and with 

 such modification of details as individual cases may require. An 

 arrangement for securing the patient within a smaller space will be very 

 useful for dressing ill-tempered and intractable subjects. This can be 

 managed by having a piece of board placed inside the cage, breadthwise, 

 so arranged that it can be drawn backward and forward as desired. 



Observations on their habits. 



The Ehesus and the Macaque monkeys have almost similar habits ; 

 they are gentle and playful creatures when young, but become sullen 

 and vicious as they grow old, especially the males. They pass most 

 of their time in alternate fighting and playing ; after a violent quarrel 

 they change to the other extreme, and behave as if they were the 

 mildest of creatures. They may be frequently seen picking out the 

 parasitic vermin from one another's fur, and the process appears to 

 be thoroughly enjoyed by the animal subjected to it, stretching itself as 

 it does in a lazy attitude on a perch or shelf. They fight most during 

 feeding time, if not checked by the keeper ; but it is not easy, even 

 with close observation, to ascribe a cause for each particular skirmish. 

 The sudden violence of their fury is extraordinary. Animals at one 

 moment living in perfect amity and concord become in an instant 

 deadly foes, ready to tear each other to pieces. The weak or the sickly 

 and the new-comers fare badly. Monkeys of these kinds are proverbial- 

 ly mischievous : they constantly snatch away a stick or umbrella, or even 

 an eye-gla^s, and when attempts are made to recover the articles their 

 behaviour shows how they enjoy their mischief. Sometimes they appear 

 to rob visitors from simple curiosity and inquisitiveness, and not in a 

 wicked or mischievous spirit. They are also addicted to playing with 

 their drinking water and splashing it about. However quarrelsome and 

 mischievous they may be, these monkeys are generally submissive to 

 their keeper, having by experience learnt to dread his power ; but should 



