23 
disease. The latter two beasts were trapped at our request 
and at laparotomy showed most severe liver infestation 
with these worms. They stood the operation well, and 
did not die until six months afterwards. That it was 
not the surgical operation which killed them is shown 
from the fact that five healthy prairie dogs similarly 
operated upon over two years ago and housed are ex- 
traordinarily sleek and heavy specimens. We are now 
in a position, having secured living material from the 
prairie dog, to breed adults in white rats or prairie dogs 
and thus secure material to determine whether the 
prairie dog species of worm is identical with the well-known 
Hepaticola hepaticum of the rat. We have already 
crossed the infestation the other way around, i. e., in- 
fested a prairie dog's liver experimentally by feeding it 
material from the rat^s liver, from which it is reasonable 
to conclude that the prairie dog enclosure has been in- 
fested through the rats. Other rodents are probably 
excluded because the livers of two wild squirrels trapped 
in the Garden showed no such disease. 
Multiple Verminous Infestation in Newly-Arrived 
Sumatra Tiger. 
We record at least six and possibly a seventh species of 
worm in the alimentary tract of this one animal, indi- 
cated on the basis of ova or larvae found in the feces. 
The beast had a bloody alvine discharge, and later 
passed a (probably new species) round worm of the genus 
Physaloptera, a genus which generally infests the stomach 
rather than the gut. The ova indicated in addition 
certainly an Ascaris, a Trichocephalus, an Uncinaria, 
and probably a fluke. A motile larva was also found. 
This examination took place 12 days after the beast's 
arrival, which only indicates that worms are brought 
into the Garden and not all contracted here. 
Distomum sinense, a Chinese liver fluke common in 
cats and human beings of that country, was found in the 
liver of a fishing cat (No. 4898) from the Indian region. 
