THE BRITISH SOCIAL HYGIENE COUNCIL

925WILDER ANIMALS.

excavated primarily to obtain materials for road-making, but with the ultimate object of servingas dens for the larger carnivora, and manyconiferous trees have been planted to form

backgrounds for panoramas; enclosures for bison,wolves, bears, wombats, marmots, and wood-chucks have been completed; six panoramapaddocks and an enclosure for kangaroos have beenlaid out. Since the property has been enclosedwild flowers have increased greatly and manyorchids and other plants natural to the chalk

region, but wholly or nearly exterminated, havebeen reintroduced, and native birds have nestedthere in increasing numbers. The park is thus to bea sanctuary for British wild birds and the flowers,trees, and shrubs natural to the region. Themore important animals already at Whipsnade,many of them the gift of the Duke of BEDFORD,President of the Society, are camels, llamas,zebras, eland, bison, bears, wolves, muntjac,Chinese water deer, fallow deer, black buck,marmots, woodchucks, wombats, sarus cranes,

rheas, pheasants, turkeys, geese, and swans.

One consequence of the greater freedom given tothe animals is the possibility of risk to visitors,who are warned that the Society disclaims

responsibility for damage caused by too close anapproach to the fences or barriers, or by anyattempt to stroke or touch the animals. Childrenunder 12 will only be admitted to the park on thecondition that their guardians make themselvespersonally responsible for their safety.The opening of the Whipsnade park is but a

logical extension of the aim to let the animalsfeel at home. To what extent this has been

already carried out under the enlightened director-ship of Sir PETER CHALMERS MITCHELL and hisstaff is not perhaps as well known as it should be.There has been a steady reduction in morbidityamong all classes of animals in the Zoo. It hasbeen taken for granted that rickets and allied bonediseases can be prevented, in animals as in man,by hygienic living. During the past year only 26animals died primarily from rickets and osteo-malacia : most of these arrived at the Zoo in ricketycondition ; in only three animals, including a

monkey and a douroucouli, did the disease originatein the gardens. For some years artificial light hasbeen installed in the monkey-house to supplementthe sunshine to which all anthropoids are raciallyentitled. A study of the heading " Commissariat "in the Society’s annual report reveals the varietyof foodstuffs which are provided for the animals,ranging from vast quantities of staples such as hay(168 tons), oats (748 quarters), locust beans

(79 cwts.), horseflesh (269 tons), down to shrimps(2178 pints), sultanas (104lb.), ant eggs (461lb.),dried flies (709lb.), and golden syrup (1481b).Tuberculosis now accounts for a bare 3’4 per cent.of the total deaths in the Zoo, and the only tuber-culous lesions found in monkeys were in twoindividuals which died in quarantine a few daysafter arrival. Apparently no monkey or apecontracted tuberculosis in the gardens during theyear. On the other hand, it is interesting to note

that an old tiger died from tuberculosis of the

lungs with extensive cavitation, and an Indianfruit-bat of eight years residence from intestinaltuberculosis. Respiratory diseases in general werefewer. Colonel A. E. HAMERTON remarks that theseasonal fluctuation in the mortality from diseasesin this category corresponds with that of the humanpopulation living in northern cities. Seven birdsdied from bird malaria and five from heart disease.In other cases conditions were found analogousto those met with in human practice. Twomammals died from ureteral obstruction by renalstone. Hepatic disease caused 20 deaths, two ofwhich were associated with gall-stones. New

growths were found in five mammals and two birds ;a grison died from cancer of the liver, and a mynahfrom cancer of the pancreas. Immunity fromepidemic disease is maintained by the new isola-tion hospital on the north bank, the efficacy ofwhich was tested on several occasions by outbreaksof cat distemper which were confined to a fewisolated cases.Under the more natural conditions at Regent’s

Park animals are continually breeding more freely,although the infantile mortality from variouscauses is still high. A baby sacred baboon waskilled by a companion at six months old, a motherwolf destroyed five of her six cubs at four days old,and an American bison calf was accidentally killedby its father when 12 days old. Neverthelessthe list of mammals successfully reared last yearis very striking ; it includes two pygmy hippo-potamuses, a Californian sea-lion, a Canadianbeaver, three lion cubs, wallabies, marmots,lemurs, and a host of hoofed creatures. What arethe genetic opportunities of Whipsnade can hardlybe forecast.THE BRITISH SOCIAL HYGIENE COUNCIL.

A LECTURE was delivered on Tuesday, under theauspices of the British Social Hygiene Council, withthe Duchess of Atholl in the chair, at the MarbleArch Rooms, London, on Social Hygiene and theFamily, by Dr. Maurice A. Bigelow, professor ofbiology in Columbia University, who has been dele-gated to Europe to observe the development ofsocial hygiene during the past ten years. Speakingfrom personal experience in the United States hedescribed the introduction of social questions intothe curricula of educational institutions and, in

comparing the work of the British Social HygieneCouncil with that of the analogous society in America,he pointed out that in both cases social hygienemeant social welfare, and the benefits to be derivedwere based upon the comprehension of sex. Itbecame clear that Prof. Bigelow did not mean bythe study of social welfare, concentration uponsexual problems, but upon family relations, the familybeing the expression of sexual activity. Society inAmerica, he said, still regarded the family as a unit,the welfare of society being bound up with the safe-guarding of that unit; and, alluding to the frequencyof divorces in America, he found them not to proveopposition to the family unit idea but only unadapta-bility of the contracting parties, inasmuch as for themost part divorced people desired to marry again.While urging the inclusion of suitable biologicalinstruction in the education of the young, he declaredthat the stories of misdemeanour at coeducationalschools in America were grossly exaggerated, andsaid that whenever investigation had been made theuntrustworthiness of the rumours had been patent.