654 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
and a similar lot fell to the keeper of a wombat at the 
Paris Garden (40) as well as to the taxidermist who pre- 
ser\^ed its skin. We know that the skin and feathers of 
our parrots and pigeons harbor mites (41) (plumicoles 
of Megnin) and, recalling the occasional cases of poultry- 
men's itch, a transient affection might be conceded from 
pet parrots and other birds. Pediculi are not as num- 
erous on monkeys as popularly supposed — ^we see very 
few at the autopsy table. AVe have seen Trichinella spira- 
lis in the polar bear (Ursiis maritimus) — an animal whose 
flesh is edible. The hydatid cysts in the camel appear un- 
important, but in the livers of deer it is otherwise. 
Neither of these infestments is dangerous if the meat is 
suflSciently cooked before eating. 
Hookworm disease points thus far only to Anchylos- 
toma duodenale in the chimpanzee and Uncinaria cey- 
lanicum in the lion and tiger. Both serve as reservoirs 
of the disease, the ova being discharged by way of the 
feces. Similarly the Strongyloides intestinalis infest- 
ment which we have seen in the orang might be trans- 
ferred to man. Indirectly, Europeans traveling in Africa 
have made the crucial test that certain ungulates and 
other wild animals of Africa are the reservoirs of Try- 
panosoma gamhiense, the parasite of the well known 
African sleeping-sickness; for this example the blood 
stream of the beast is the reserv-oir and a biting insect 
the means of transmission. 
The above examples are cited to emphasize the pos- 
sibility that parasites of wild animals may have a patho- 
genic significance for man. They do not exhaust the 
subject. Many more instances might be cited but the fore- 
going bring out the important ones which have come to 
our attention. 
(40) Railliet Traite de Zool. Med. et Agric. Paris — Asselin et 
Houzeau, 1895, p. 659. 
(41) Megnin, Les Parasites Articules, 1895, Masson et Cie, Paris. 
