656 DISEASE IN WILD MAMMALS AND BIRDS 
of the Camivora house in 1916(44) showed that less than 
one-third of the animals were infested, and of these 
aU save the jaguars showed either small numbers of ova 
in the feces or relatively non-pathogenic forms. The 
jaguars had been badly infested for many years with 
dibothriocephalus. Prior to this examination we had 
been under the impression that nearly every one of the 
felidaB ordinarily was infested and if this impression 
was well founded, due credit must be given, in company 
with general hygienic precautions, to the routine santo- 
nin dosages. It goes without saying that where animals 
are detected at autopsy with unequivocal transmissible 
and dangerous parasites (coccidia, amebae, etc.), the con- 
tacts are isolated, examined and if necessary treated for 
the affection or even sacrificed. 
To continue the preventive measures, it would be most 
desirable to examine at least the blood and feces of all 
newly an*ived animals, but at present this is not practi- 
cable on account of the labor involved in the laboratory 
and in collecting the material, and because all animals 
do not stand the restraint involved when blood specimens 
are being taken. At present we are limiting special ex- 
aminations to the droppings of newly arrived parrots and 
toucans for Spiroptera incerta and to the feces of certain 
monkeys for amebse. 
Further preventive measures will depend on the 
nature of indi\'idual infestments as they crop up. Food 
inspection, screening, sulphur dips, etc., are but a few 
examples of what might be found necessary hygienically 
after investigating or establishing the life cycle of our 
numerous parasitic groups. However we cannot forbear 
to emphasize again the value of the blast lamp and of 
paint in the hygiene of animal enclosures — ^means we 
believe to be much more potent and quite as practicable as 
chemical disinfectants. 
(44) Phila. Zool. Soc. Rep., 1917, p. 36. 
