852 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 28, 1910. 
Skunk Bite and Hydrophobia. 
For about thirty-five years this title has been 
more or less familiar to readers of Forest and 
Stream, and yet not very much more is known 
about it at present in a practical way than was 
in 1875, when Dr. Janeway’s first article on the 
subject was printed. Down in the Southwest 
there has been for many years a firm belief that 
skunks of a certain species called the hydro¬ 
phobia skunk are always rabid, and that their 
bite is invariably fatal. Within the last two 
years we have printed accounts of two deaths 
by skunk bite in Arizona, and three other fatal 
cases—five in all—have come under the notice 
of physicians in that time. 
Early in April the Prescott Courier told of 
the case of a man named Manuel Contreras who 
was bitten in the wrist by a skunk. The skunk 
was killed by the man’s brother, and the wound 
opened so that it should bleed profusely. It was 
reported that the patient was going to Los 
Angeles for Pasteur treatment, but he did not 
do so, as there is no Pasteur Institute in that 
city. He went instead for treatment to some 
place in Mexico, has returned, and up to May 
12 had not developed rabies. 
For some years Dr. C. E. Yount, of Prescott, 
Ariz., has been investigating rabies with special 
relation to the danger from skunk bite. He read 
a report on this subject to the Arizona Medical 
Association last March, and he gave a list of 
eighteen cases of skunk bite in Arizona, of which 
five developed rabies, and died. Dr. Yount con¬ 
cludes that in Arizona the skunk is the most 
prolific source of infection; in fact, almost the 
only cause of rabies. For the two years in ques¬ 
tion, 1907-1909, rabies seemed to be peculiarly 
endemic in Arizona. The records of the Chi¬ 
cago Pasteur Institute for the past eighteen 
years shows that New Mexico has sent to that 
institution only four cases for treatment as 
against thirty-three from Arizona. 
Dr. Yount gives accounts of two cases which 
he examined, the little girl and the old trapper, 
of which notes were printed in Forest and 
Stream in 1908. In each of these cases the in¬ 
cubation of the disease was forty-one days. Dr. 
Yount concludes that the skunk is the most pro¬ 
lific endemic source of the propagation of rabies 
in Arizona. In the last two years there was one 
bite of rabid coyote and one of a rabid dog, the 
dog having been bitten by a skunk. Epidemic 
rabies would spread more rapidly in Arizona as 
elsewhere, if distributed by the more common 
carriers, the dog and the cat. There is no such 
thing yet known as a hydrophobia skunk, but all 
skunks are very susceptible to rabies. When 
the skunk, which is nocturnal in habits and gen¬ 
erally timid, attacks man or any other animal 
and attempts to inflict a bite, it may be well to 
accept this change of disposition on the part of 
the skunk as a priori evidence of rabies, and 
to seek Pasteur treatment at once. 
• - 
Philadelphia Zoological Society. 
The thirty-eighth annual report of the Zoo¬ 
logical Society of Philadelphia, read at the an¬ 
nual meeting of the members and loan holders 
of the society, April 28, 1910, is just received. 
The attendance for the year was 173,987, to 
which must be added 175,000 tickets issued to 
the Board of Education for the admission of 
pupils of the public schools. The total number 
of animals exhibited through the year was 2,348, 
of which 479 were mammals and 933 birds and 
936 reptiles and amphibians. Among the novel¬ 
ties were some rare monkeys, some African 
antelopes collected by the Smithsonian Institu¬ 
tion from East Africa and temporarily kept in 
the Philadelphia Garden for some.time, and a 
number of interesting birds, especially an ostrich, 
a cassowary and a pair of emus. 
The year showed no gain in the income of the 
society and expenses were kept down. Never¬ 
theless many valuable additions were made to 
the collection. The pathologist of the Garden 
made a great many autopsies—not a few of them 
with results of great interest.. A number* of 
tuberculous monkeys were discovered in the col¬ 
lection—there have been none since 1907—and 
» 
faith in the tuberculin test is strengthened. 
Tropical Bird Rookeries. 
Hon. Geo. Shiras, 3D, of Washington, and 
Frank M. Chapman, of the American Museum 
of Natural History, returned not long ago from 
a protracted trip which included Florida, Mexico 
and portions of Central America. Their chief 
object was bird investigation, and among the 
very interesting discoveries that they made were 
some rookeries in Southern Mexico of the 
roseate spoonbill and the man-o’-war bird. The 
roseate spoonbill is believed to be almost ex¬ 
tinct in Florida, only a few hundred birds being 
known there, but this Mexican rookery was a 
large one, and the birds apparently had not been 
disturbed, for they were very tame. The situa¬ 
tion of the breeding grounds enabled the ob¬ 
servers to get quite close to the nests and con¬ 
ceal themselves there, so that before long they 
had extraordinarily favorable opportunities for 
inspecting and photographing the birds as they 
were going and coming to and from their homes. 
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 
The Royal Society for the protection of birds 
was founded at Manchester, England, in Febru¬ 
ary, 1889, eight years before the Audubon So¬ 
ciety of the District of Columbia was organized. 
The Duchess of Portland has been its president 
since 1891. 
Recent Publications. 
The Columbia River: its History, its Myths, 
its Scenery, its Commerce, by William Den¬ 
nison Lyman. Decorated cloth, large octavo, 
409 pages, 80- illustrations and a map, $3.50 
net. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 
The present volume is uniform with the others 
in the American Waterways Series, comprising 
“The Hudson River,’’ “The Connecticut River,” 
“The St. Lawrence River,” “The Niagara River,” 
“The Romance of the Colorado River,” “The 
Ohio River,” “Narragansett Bay,” “The Great 
Lakes,” already published; and “Inland Water¬ 
ways,” “The Mississippi River,” “The Story of 
the Chesapeake” and “Lake George and Lake 
Champlain” in preparation. 
Part I. is historical, relating to the discovery 
of the great river; the coming of the fur traders, 
the missionaries and the pioneers; the conflicts 
between the Indians and others; and finally the 
advent of the cowmen, the miners, the farmers, 
and the present era of commercial activity. 
Part II. relates to a voyage down the Colum¬ 
bia, and is mainly descriptive, though it is en¬ 
livened with stories of the exciting times ex¬ 
perienced at different points by sportsmen and 
by the early settlers. The volume is profoundly 
interesting and is an invaluable addition to the 
history of the Northwest. 
Beasts and Men, by Carl Hagenbeck. Large 
8vo., 300 pages, 100 illustrations from photo¬ 
graphs, $3.50 net. New York, Longmans, 
Green & Co. 
Although this is an abridged translation by 
Hugh S. R. Elliott and A. G. Shacker, of Carl 
Hagenbeck’s experiences for half a century 
among wjld animals, it covers the very wide 
range of effort in the acquisition, study and 
taming of wild beasts for which the author’s 
name has become a household word wherever 
exhibitions of the character made famous by 
him are known. Not a few of the incidents 
related read like fairy tales instead of truthful 
narratives by a matter-of-fact animal trainer. 
Amusing and often pathetic anecdotes fill a large 
portion of the book, which should be read by 
every person who has marveled over the seem¬ 
ingly mysterious manner in which wild animals 
are controlled and taught by Hagenbeck’s men. 
Lake Victoria to Khartoum With Rifle and 
Camera, by Captain F. A. Dickenson. 8vo. 
cloth, 334 pages, illustrated from photo¬ 
graphs, $4 net. New York, the John Lane 
Company. 
Readers who in “Big Game Shooting on the 
Equator” followed the wanderings of Captain 
Dickenson in British East Africa and found 
amusement in his breezy narrative and informa¬ 
tion in his more sober writings, will be glad of 
another opportunity to enjoy a treat. This 
volume relates to the habits and habitat of game 
to be found in Uganda and along the White 
Nile; and to a long journey to Khartoum and 
back again to Uganda, with excellent shooting 
en route. The Captain was then in charge of 
the army detail which escorted the Hon. Winston 
Churchill to Gondokoro after the latter’s official 
visit to British East Africa. Indeed, Mr. 
Churchchill wrote an introductory note for the 
volume. The illustrations, while small, are un¬ 
usually good ones. 
Trees, by the late H. Marshall Ward, ScD., 
F. R.S. Cloth, 308 pages. Illustrated with 
drawings and from photographs. Cam¬ 
bridge, The University Press. New York, 
G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 
The present work is Vol. V. of the Cambridge 
Biological series, and treats of form and habit, 
with an appendix on seedlings. The language of 
the text is such that, with the assistance of the 
numerous detailed illustrations, the student is 
enabled to learn readily the characteristics of 
different trees and shrubs. It is an excellent 
treatise. 
Books Received : “The *Story of the Ameri¬ 
can Merchant Marine,” by John R. Spears; The 
Macmillan Company. “Fishing Kits and Equip¬ 
ment,” by Samuel G. Camp; The Outing Pub¬ 
lishing Company. “Swimming,” by Edwin Ten¬ 
ney Brewster; Houghton, Mifflin Company. 
“Revolution,” by Jack London; The Macmillan 
Company. 
