Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

 

The Diseases Of Wild Animals.

While First Surgeon of the thirty-first Regiment of the line, then stationed at Alabers, in Algeria. I dissected the carcasses of about fifty lions. The lungs of twenty of them were affected; one half of them were almost gone, showing that consumption [tuberculosis] is prevalent among the lions of the Sahara and the Sahel. At the Jardin des Plantes, here in Paris, seven lions have died since 1809. All of them were born here. I dissected them, and found that  their lungs were entirely healthy. To what was the difference due! They received their food regularly, and were carefully protected from inclement weather, while the lions in Africa had to go without food for days, had to inhale the sandy air of the desert, and were frequently drenched by terrible rains.

There is at the Jardin des Plantus a wolf from the Ardennes. He was caught when about 6 years old. He was suffering from cough, and at one time we thought he was dying. He hawked and spat, and was always sullen and morose. Often he abstained from food for days. At last we chloroformed him, and examined his throat. He was found to be suffering from nasal catarrh in its most aggravated form. Under proper medical treatment he recovered rapidly. Nine wolves born at the Jardin never showed the slightest sign of disease.

Mr. Jacquemart, the famous Indian hunter, often told me that he had seen tigers spitting blood, which exhausted them so that they could be approached within a few feet with impunity.

All monkeys are very delicate animals. They are not gluttonous; and having so much exercise, they are rarely afflicted with diseasces of the bowels. But they have weak lungs, and the reason why so many of the most interesting among them die when brought to Europe is the too sudden change of air, diet, and water. There is no more intelligent monkey than the chimpanzee, a truly wonderful animal. While in Berlin I dined at the Zoological Gardens by the side of a pet chimpanzee. He partook of every dish like a human being, put sugar into his tea cup, stirred it with the spoon, and drank the beverage with evident relish. But his eyes looked supernaturally bright. I felt his pulse. It was 125. “He will not live very long” I said to his keeper.

“Why not! ” he asked, with sorrowful mien. “He is consumptive,” I replied. “Indeed! He often coughs.” The chimpanzee died a month later. His left lung was entirely gone.-Prof. Jean Vilain.